The Warriors’ first foray into the NRL Touch Premiership has finished with the men’s team narrowly missing the opportunity to play in the finals.
The club’s two teams travelled to Newcastle for their sixth and final regular season matches against the Knights.
The men went into their contest lying fourth on six points and needing a win – and preferably by a healthy margin – to have a chance of making the top three for the play-offs.
However, the second-placed Knights were too hot to handle on the night winning 11-4 to leave the Warriors fourth and out of the running after finishing with a 3-3 record in their six games.
There are three games left before the finals start on August 11 with the Tigers (third) facing the Knights (second) tonight, the Broncos (sixth) taking on the Cowboys (first) tomorrow night and the Roosters (eighth) meeting the Titans (fifth) on Sunday.
The women ended their campaign with a tough 2-3 loss to the Knights leaving them with a 2-4 record. They sit sixth on four points for now.
The NRL Touch Premiership started last season with six clubs involved before the Warriors and the Sydney Roosters were added this year.
Overall the Warriors finished with a creditable 5-7 record across the two competitions. Fellow newcomers the Roosters are yet to register a victory in either the men’s or women’s divisions ahead of their last outings against the Titans.
The introduction of two Warriors teams is a joint venture between Touch New Zealand and the Vodafone Warriors.
Both the men’s and women’s sides made a good first impression in their inaugural season winning their first games against the Roosters at Mount Smart Stadium on May 5 with the men prevailing 8-7 and women 10-5.
The Warriors were also at home for their second set of games against the Wests Tigers on May 25.5th of May. The men lost a close encounter 5-6 while the women had a good 8-7 win.
The first away games of the season saw the Warriors travel to Australia’s Gold Coast to play the Titans at Cbus Super Stadium on June 2. The men had a tough loss against a strong Titans side, going down 5-11 while the women had a very close game, eventually going down 4-5.
Back home on June 30, the men triumphed 8-6 against the Parramatta Eels but the women came up against the competition-leading Eels and went down 2-9.
In their fifth outings, the men edged Brisbane 8-7 to sit fourth while the women lost 4-6.
2019 NRL TOUCH PREMIERSHIP
WARRIORS MEN
Michael Cavanagh (replaced by Josh Quinn)
Mita Graham
Ifor Jones
Pokaiaua Kurukaanga
Sean Law
Tiaan McIntyre
Danyon Morgan-Puterangi (replaced by Kristopher Middleton)
Awa Morris
Andy Bergin
Ashton Robinson (replaced by Tiwi Davis)
Carlos Savage
Matthew Sinclair
Finlay Barnett
Maurice Stone
Shaquille Stone
Head coach: Rahul Das
Results
v Sydney Roosters | Won 8-7
v Wests Tigers | Lost 5-6
v Gold Coast Titans | Lost 5-11
v Parramatta Eels | Won 8-6
v Brisbane Broncos | Won 8-7
v Newcastle Knights | Lost 4-11
WARRIORS WOMEN’S SQUAD
Tay-a Antonievic
Savarna Asafo-Tavita
Charlotte Davis
Nicole Drummond
Princess Elliot
Jaymie Kolose
Hayley Lee
Jessica Mahar
Isla Norman-Bell
Victoria Pone
Janelle Cavanagh
Meg Sycamore
Ariia Tainui-McIntyre
Codie Taute
Dayna Turnbull
Head Coach: Leana Fox
Results
v Sydney Roosters | Won 10-5
v Wests Tigers | Won 8-7
v Gold Coast Titans | Lost 4-5
v Parramatta Eels | Lost 2-9
v Brisbane Broncos | Lost 4-6
v Newcastle Knights | Lost 2-3
