Warriors v Bulldogs: Live updates from the crucial round 23 NRL clash
All the action as the Warriors travel to Sydney to take on the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in a crucial NRL Indigenous Round clash.
In a bombshell late change to his side's starting lineup to take on the Bulldogs, Warriors coach Andrew Webster has dropped halfback Tanah Boyd.
Boyd was named in the No 7 jersey for the top grade team 24 hours out from the game, but surprisingly played 80 minutes in the club's reserve grade NSW Cup side.
The Warriors have not given a reason for the 25-year-old's relegation, but have instead called upon Te Maire Martin to fill in at halfback.
Meanwhile, the Warriors welcome back skipper James Fisher-Harris and five-eighth Chanel Harris-Tavita for Saturday night's clash.
Both players missed last week's 20-18 loss to the Dolphins with calf injuries but have been named in the Warriors squad as the side looks to snap a two-game losing streak.
Captain Fisher-Harris was originally named on the extended bench, but was brought into the starting 13 by Webster on Friday night.
His inclusion sees Marata Niukore move into the second row, Leka Halasima pushed to the interchange bench and last week's debutant Eddie Ieremia-Toeava into the reserves.
Te Maire Martin has been named on the interchange bench at the expense of Freddy Lussick.
Prop Demitric Vaimauga, who also missed the loss to the Dolphins, is also on the interchange, replacing Jacob Laban, who has been ruled out for six weeks with a broken leg.
Laban was on the wrong end of a hip-drop tackle at the weekend and the culprit, Felise Kaufusi, has been slapped with a two-match ban.
Hooker Wayde Egan has overcome his head knock but Webster is using the match to help the 28-year-old rest a persistent shoulder injury.
That gives Samuel Healey a start in the No 9 jersey for his fourth NRL appearance.
For the Bulldogs, Lachlan Gavlin has been named at halfback despite fracturing his hand in their 28-14 loss to the Wests Tigers.
The Warriors have lost four of their past six matches, including the last two, and sit in fifth place after a strong Penrith Panthers showing against the Newcastle Knights on Friday.
The Bulldogs beat the Warriors twice last season, a golden point 13-12 thriller in Sydney and a 34-18 win in Auckland.
Warriors team: 1. Taine Tuaupiki, 2. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 3. Adam Pompey, 4. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 5. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, 6. Chanel Harris-Tavita, 7. Tanah Boyd, 10. Jackson Ford, 9. Samuel Healey, 23. James Fisher-Harris (c), 8. Marata Niukore, 12. Kurt Capewell, 13. Erin Clark.
Interchange (from): 11. Leka Halasima, 14. Te Maire Martin, 16. Demitric Vaimauga, 17. Tanner Stowers-Smith, 18. Freddy Lussick, 15. Eddie Ieremia-Toeava.
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RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
'Killing ourselves': What we learned from the Warriors' desperate win over Dragons
Warriors celebrate Adam Pompey's game-winning try against the Dragons in Auckland, on Friday. Photo: Brett Phibbs/ Analysis - As they tried to pin their opponents on their goal-line in the dying moments, the New Zealand Warriors must have suffered flashbacks to a similar scenario two weeks ago. Back then, the Warriors held a two-point lead and only needed to contain the Dolphins, but let their opponents off the hook to score a soul-destroying last-gasp try for victory . While most have lamented the defensive breakdown in their redzone that allowed the decisive score, Warriors coach Andrew Webster pointed his finger at those shortcomings at the other end of the field. "We let them off their line twice to give them a shot at that and we didn't need to," he said. Fast forward a fortnight and the Warriors had St George-Illawarra Dragons exactly where they wanted them - four points down and deep in their own half with time running out. Dragons speedster Tyrell Sloan broke over halfway and alarm bells rang out, but he had to slow for support and the Warriors defenders scrambled as if their lives depended on it. As St George tried to send the ball to the right, winger Roger Tuivasa-Sheck jumped out of the defensive line to force halfback Kyle Flanagan into error, the danger passed and the home side held on 14-10. "Two weeks ago, against the Dolphins, that moment went against us," Webster said. "Tonight it didn't." One win can make an amazing difference at the pointy end of a season . If they had suffered a fourth straight defeat, the Warriors would have teetered on the edge of post-season oblivion, but victory has propelled them back into the top four and a chance at a second playoff life. "I don't think you get out of a three-game losing streak by winning by 20-30 points," Webster reflected. "You're going to grind it and you're going to find a way, and it's not going to be perfect." Here's how they achieved it. Warriors co-captain James Fisher-Harris had a first half he'd probably rather forget. His blown play-the-ball allowed the Dragons out off their own half in the ninth minute, and his dangerous tackle seconds later gave them a penalty from which they opened the scoring. "We're killing ourselves, making it hard for ourselves all the time," Webster lamented, perhaps kicking his skipper under the media conference table. Fisher-Harris was by no means alone in that regard. Teen sensation Leka Halasima had two errors in little over a minute, halfback Tanah Boyd and front-rower Jackson Ford gave the Dragons repeat sets with ruck infringements, and centre Adam Pompey conceded a penalty in the build-up to their second try. Somewhat indirectly, though, Fisher-Harris was also responsible for a moment that may have set the Dragons on the course to defeat. In the 15th minute, Fisher-Harris charged over halfway and, in their combined attempts to stop him, St George team-mates Jack de Belin - celebrating his 250th NRL game - and Hamish Stewart clashed heads, and lay prone for several seconds. They were both guided to the sideline, where they both failed head injury assessments. Just as they were ruled out, they were joined by Hame Sele, who had actually replaced Stewart. Suddenly, St George were down three players and, while they were then allowed to activate Sloan as their designated concussion substitute, the winger/fullback was never likely to make up for the loss of three big forwards. As the game wore on, the Dragons noticeably wore out and even Sloan's fresh legs couldn't quite spark a revival, once they surrendered the lead. Winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak has taken his share of flak in recent weeks for defensive lapses, but he tore at the Dragons' defence all night. Maybe the pre-game Indigenous Round ceremony had the effect of firing him up, maybe it was his brief second-half exchange with serial protagonist Luciano Leilua. Second-time dad Taine Tuaupiki performed on very little sleep on Friday, after babywatch. Photo: Brett Phibbs / He ran 18 times for 171 metres and, after scoring two tries against the Dolphins, he may be coming into form at the tail end of an injury-riddled campaign. One of his charges resulted in Sele's early exit. After a quiet game against Canterbury Bulldogs, Tuivasa-Sheck was back over 265 metres running and had a freakish assist on Chanel Harris-Tavita's try, as he was pushed into touch in the corner, but somehow got the pass back infield. "Roger's in great form and he's getting involved a lot," Webster said. "He's giving us plenty of energy and coming up with big plays when we need them." Fullback Taine Tuaupiki asked plenty of questions and had assists on both Pompey's tries - the second came when he ran shortside from dummy half and found his centre with little room to operate. Webster revealed an exhausted Tuaupiki was almost scratched, after a late night witnessing the birth of his second child - a son - overnight. "He won't get any sleep again, but he gets to go home and enjoy it with a smile on his face," Webster said. "I'm just really grateful to his wife for letting him leave. "Often it's the hero story of the man leaves and plays the game, but it's the boys' partners/wives/girlfriends that allow them to go and give themselves to the team - it's pretty special." Among the forwards, Ford led the tackle count with 53 and 157 running metres, while lock Erin Clark had 39 and 132 in another consistent display. Normally, scoring a try double would have Pompey at the forefront of leading performers, but he probably owed his team as much, after allowing counterpart Mat Feagai a double of his own in the first half. Hastings-born Feagai had the Warriors in fits early on and perhaps should have had a third try, but lost control of the ball, after breaking from his own half. Only despairing cover defence from Tuaupiki saved his team. Feagai slipped inside Pompey and through Tuaupiki for his first try and then outside Pompey for his second, so it was fitting those two Warriors should combine late in the game to pull the deficit back. Front-rower Jackson Ford led the Warriors tackling effort on Friday. Photo: Brett Phibbs/ Incredibly, given their recent form, this win puts them back into the top four, leapfrogging four-time defending champions Penrith Panthers, who had a nine-game winning streak snapped by Melbourne Storm in controversial circumstances on Thursday. Penrith actually have a tough run home over the next three weeks, with tabletoppers Canberra Raiders next week and third-placed Bulldogs the following week, before finishing off against giantkillers St George. A clean run to the finish could see the Warriors home, but they are still only six points clear of the ninth-placed Dolphins, who face Brisbane Broncos (sixth) on Saturday. Sydney Roosters kept their hopes alive by toppling the Bulldogs on Friday night, so by the end of the weekend, the Warriors may still be just four points away, with three games left, from missing the playoffs. Without this win, that predicament could have been far worse. Normally, the bottom team on the table at this stage of the season would look decidedly tasty - but not if they are Gold Coast Titans and not if you're the Warriors. The last three times these teams have met, Titans were cellar-dwellers, but still won. Gold Coast have been the Warriors' bogey team in recent times, especially across the ditch, where they inflicted a 60-point embarrassment this time last year. The Warriors seem to have escaped against the Dragons without obvious injury, and should have second-rower Kurt Capewell and utility Te Maire Martin (both concussion) back next week. Centre Rocco Berry (shoulder) was also spotted in a non-contact vest at training recently, so maybe he's a chance too. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Spinoff
7 hours ago
- The Spinoff
New Zealand women's rugby league has never been stronger
This year marks 30 years of the Kiwi Ferns and the return of the Warriors NRLW side. But to ensure the strength of the women's game continues at an elite level, we must safeguard grassroots footy. A recent rousing 12-6 win over the North Queensland Cowboys saw 19-year-old prop Ivana Lauiti'iti make a storming debut, alongside teammate Tyra Wetere on the wing. Lauiti'iti's try, a defiant carry shrugging off four or five defenders, made the difference where it counted. But the precision of her hit on Cowboys fullback Jakiya Whitfeld, around the 67-minute mark, was instinctive, familiar even. The daughter of Warriors immortal, Ali Lauiti'iti, Ivana had little to say in a post-match interview. She didn't need to. Women's rugby league is surging with a ferocity of momentum that speaks for itself, with 2025 marking 30 years of the Kiwi Ferns. But the current propulsion did not occur in a vacuum – this was an operation decades in the making. The first matches in women's rugby league were played in the 1960s and 1970s. Organised and sustained competitions emerged in the 1980s, with engagement peaking and falling in the 1990s, before gaining popularity again more recently. Ryan Bodman's work (Rugby League in New Zealand: A People's History) reveals, in incredible detail, that women's enthusiasm for the game can be traced to the early 20th century. Parnell managed to enlist 60-odd women to play a match in 1921. The rules were modified, and games were the equivalent of a practice run. But across the country – in Christchurch, Wellington, Onehunga and elsewhere – interest spread, with appeals made to established men's outfits for a women's competition and arranged fixtures. Women in New Zealand had already undertaken heavy labour during the war. They had survived influenza. The push to play league was more difficult to repudiate on these grounds. 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This became a platform to tackle further responsibility at the club level and beyond, with women taking presidential roles as early as the late 1960s. The on-field expansion, though much slower, found genesis in this decade, but it wasn't until the 1970s that it really took hold. These innovators espoused a 'get on with it' attitude that became impossible to ignore. The emergence of domestic competitions for women in the 1970s laid the groundwork for the development of the international game. League strongholds across the motu began to field women's sides that demonstrated as much nous with the Steeden as the men. Warriors NRLW manager Nadene Conlon has suggested the women's game may have been less technical, but there was more ball movement – so much so that in 1976, Manurewa sent their women's side across the Tasman in what might be considered the first clashes of a historic grudge between New Zealand and Australia. But the longevity of these competitions were not always sustained, and it wasn't until the 1980s, with the swell in popularity of the Winfield Cup, that the women's game found consistent footing. At the turn of the decade, the domestic game began to grow its wings and concurrently, birthed the Kiwi Ferns. Between 1992 and 1994 the Auckland women's competition grew from four teams to 24 teams. The time was ripe for a representative side and in 1995, the first national women's representative team was announced. In a Sky New Zealand-produced documentary on the Kiwi Ferns, inaugural president of the New Zealand Women's Rugby League Federation Christine Panapa recalled an initial, no-fuss attitude to the naming of the team (New Zealand women's rugby league), before her and NZRL chairman Gerald Ryan landed on the Kiwi Ferns in 1998. Captained by Juanita Hall and coached by Janie Thompson, the 23-strong squad took off on a 21-day tour of Australia. But to get the team there was 'a full-time job', Panapa said. Winger Lynley Tierney said there was only a two-week turnaround from being named in the side to the tour, and they had to fundraise $2,000 each through raffles. If they didn't sell the tickets, they paid themselves. In the same vein, Tierney said her boots fell apart at nationals, and she had to sell her vacuum for another pair. Since its inception, rugby league has run on the smell of an oily rag, but the women's game was a different beast altogether. There was no available funding: the players fundraised plane tickets, accommodation and catering – all the essential provisions for a rep footy side – to get across the ditch. But it paid off. The team won all seven matches, cementing themselves as the unofficial world champions – a title that endured for almost 20 years. The triumph of that first Kiwi Ferns side isn't limited to their impact on the growth of the game, visibility of women in sport, or professional development pathways. This team established a legacy of dominance for the franchise. They scored 204 points across seven fixtures and conceded only 30 points. Not every match was a blowout, either. Nor was the tour without struggle. The 1995 Kiwi Ferns overcame injury, halftime deficits and a punishing playing schedule to claim that title. More importantly, they concretised the jersey with a hard-won wairua. Today, to wear that jersey is to honour all the women whose blistered hands the game has passed through. The first official Women's Rugby League World Cup in 2000 solidified the Kiwi Ferns kaupapa with a searing grand final victory over Great Britain, 24-6. In the 2008 World Cup, only the final of the women's competition was shown on TV, and not one of the women's world cup matches in 2013 was broadcast. But by 2017, every game of the Women's Rugby League World Cup was broadcast. Last year saw a 112% increase in player registration from 2022 for the domestic women's code. Around 30% of players in the NRLW claim New Zealand heritage. In 2023, the entire Kiwi Ferns squad was comprised of professional NRLW players. A collective bargaining agreement was reached in that same year between the NRL and the Rugby League Players Association, the terms of which are set for five years. This is the first time in women's rugby league that such an agreement has been negotiated. The salary cap is set at $1.38m for 2025, with a $45,825 minimum wage per player. These figures will increase to $1.66m and $55,472 respectively for the 2027 season. Crucially, provisions relating to pregnancy, parental care responsibilities and private health insurance are also included. With the expansion of the NRLW to 10 teams, and the financial opportunities that arise with professional development, it is inevitable that the local game will feel the pressure. But in order to maintain and develop the pool of world-class talent at the representative level, there is a need to future-proof the local game. This protection, ensuring local clubs can continue to produce elite players, alongside more generous sponsorship and broadcasting, must happen concurrently to the incentivisation of the NRLW. The fervour of the women's game in New Zealand owes that much to the inaugural 1995 Kiwi Ferns team. From Nadene Conlon, Laura Waretini and Luisa Avaiki, to Honey Bill Williams (Honey Hireme-Smiler), Krystal Rota, Apii Nicholls and Mele Hufanga – there is an irreplaceable whakapapa to protect and celebrate. But to grow that legacy, to keep the wairua so intrinsic to that jersey intact, and the histories of blood, mud, sweat and tears etched into it, we have to protect that which makes it singularly special – grassroots footy.
NZ Herald
15 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Warriors v Dragons live updates: Warriors look to end losing run
Live updates of the NRL clash between the Warriors and Dragons as Andrew Webster's side look to end a three-game losing run. Warriors coach Andrew Webster has recalled halfback Tanah Boyd and hooker Wayde Egan as the side looks to break a three-game losing streak when they face the St George Illawarra Dragons. Boyd, 25, was dropped to the club's reserve grade NSW Cup side last week after originally being named as a starter for the top grade team 24 hours out from their 32-14 loss to the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. Webster instead called on Te Maire Martin to fill in at No 7 for his second start of the season, but the utility left the field 22 minutes into the game after suffering a concussion. Boyd has been named to return in the halfback jersey against the Dragons at Auckland's Go Media Stadium on Friday night in what will be the Warriors' penultimate home game of the NRL regular season. Meanwhile, the Warriors will be without veteran second-rower Kurt Capewell, who also suffered a head knock against the Bulldogs. Leka Halasima moves from the bench into the starting lineup to replace him. Egan returns to the starting side after missing the last two games because of a head knock and shoulder injury. He has replaced rookie Samuel Healey, who will shift back to the interchange bench. The two sides last met in round 10 at Wollongong's WIN Stadium, when the Warriors won 15-14 after a 69th-minute Luke Metcalf field goal. Metcalf, the favoured halfback for the opening 17 rounds of the Warriors' campaign, was ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a torn ACL against the Brisbane Broncos in June. With four rounds remaining before the finals series, the Warriors hope to revive their top-four aspirations after three consecutive losses – against the Bulldogs, Redcliffe Dolphins and Gold Coast Titans – pushed them into fifth on the NRL ladder, one point behind the Penrith Panthers. The Warriors have lost five of their last seven games, three of those in front of sold-out Go Media Stadium crowds. The Dragons, meanwhile, sit in 11th place, four points behind the eighth-placed Dolphins. They have to win their remaining four games and have results go their way to have a chance of qualifying for the finals. However, the Warriors won't be expecting an easy win after the Dragons have upset top-of-the-table Canberra Raiders and seventh-place Cronulla Sharks in the past two rounds. Warriors team to face Dragons, kickoff 8pm Warriors team: 1. Taine Tuaupiki, 2. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 3. Adam Pompey, 4. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 5. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, 6. Chanel Harris-Tavita, 7. Tanah Boyd, 8. James Fisher-Harris (c), 9. Wayde Egan, 10. Jackson Ford, 11. Leka Halasima, 12. Marata Niukore, 13. Erin Clark. Interchange (from): 14. Samuel Healey, 15. Eddie Ieremia-Toeava, 16. Demitric Vaimauga, 17. Tanner Stowers-Smith, 18. Freddy Lussick, 20. Edward Kosi, 21. Tom Ale, 22. Kayliss Fatialofa, 25. Bunty Afoa.
