The Vodafone Warriors will be out to build on solid recent form when they face Newcastle in Saturday’s 16th-round Canterbury Cup NSW encounter at McDonald Jones Stadium (5.20pm kick-off local time; 7.20pm NZT).
A run of three wins and a draw in their last five starts have helped to 12 points, just one behind eighth-placed Newtown and two the Western Suburbs Magpies (sixth) and the North Sydney Bears (seventh).
The Nathan Cayless-coached side is coming off an impressive 32-10 win over the Bears, the club’s biggest win this season.
It follows a 26-16 victory over Wentworthville, a 20-20 draw with Newtown and a 20-6 victory over the Blacktown Workers Sea Eagles with just a loss to St George Illawarra in the sequence.
The Vodafone Warriors fed off a strong showing from former Kiwi hooker Issac Luke last weekend (he’s back in the NRL squad this week).
There were any number of other impressive contributions with props Chris Satae (227 metres) and Jackson Frei (107 metres) making their mark in the middle while the outside backs all made 100 metres or more, fullback Adam Pompey the best of them with 167 metres.
The 11th-placed Knights have lost their last four matches.
The Vodafone Junior Warriors have a break with two byes over the next two weekends in the Jersey Flegg Cup.
VODAFONE WARRIORS v NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
5.20pm, Saturday, July 6
McDonald Jones Stadium, Newcastle
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1 ADAM POMPEY
2 LEWIS SOOSEMEA
3 HAYZE PERHAM
4 BLAKE AYSHFORD
5 SETU TU
6 ADAM KEIGHRAN
7 CHANEL HARRIS-TAVITA
8 CHRIS SATAE
9 TYLER SLADE
10 JACKSON FREI
11 ADAM TUIMAVAVE-GERRARD
12 TAANE MILNE
13 LEIVAHA PULU
Interchange:
14 PHILLIP MAKATOA
15 JOSH CURRAN
16 PRESTON RIKI
17 CLAYTON WILLIAMS
18 SEAN MULLANY
COACH | NATHAN CAYLESS
