The Vodafone Warriors will use the same combination for the fourth week running in Sunday’s NRL match against the in-form Sydney Roosters at Aussie Stadium in Sydney.
Head coach Ivan Cleary today named the same squad that has beaten St George Illawarra, Wests Tigers and Newcastle in its last three outings.
Travelling with the same 17 players as 18th man will be utility Lance Hohaia, who scored a pure hat-trick in the Vodafone Auckland Lions’ 54-26 victory against the Knights in their New South Wales Premier League encounter last Saturday night.
Hohaia also picked up two tries in the premier league side’s 42-22 win against the Western Suburbs Magpies the previous week.
“The 17 we’ve been using have done a terrific job for us lately,” said Cleary.
“The performance against Newcastle was pleasing but we now face one of the toughest games we’ll have against the Roosters. They have some real momentum and we’ll have to step up another level again on Sunday.”
Since losing 0-56 to Manly, the Roosters have won three straight matches under new coach Brad Fittler beating Cronulla 23-12 at home, Newcastle 20-17 away and competition leader Melbourne 26-16 at home last Friday night.
“The Roosters have shown again how quickly things change in this competition,” said Cleary.
In their last three matches the Vodafone Warriors beat the Dragons 44-16, the Tigers 28-16 and the Knights 52-10, improving their run of form to six wins from their last seven games following a six-game losing streak. That has lifted them to fourth spot on points differential but they’re one of five teams on 22 with South Sydney just two points further back on 20 while four other teams are in range on 18 points.
This is the only match-up between the Vodafone Warriors and the Roosters in the regular season. Last year the Vodafone Warriors beat the then Ricky Stuart-coached side 22-12 in Sydney and 42-16 in Auckland.
Last week’s 42-point win against the Knights – equalling the club’s record winning margin against Newcastle – intensified the contest among the leading try-scorers. With his double fullback Wade McKinnon now leads with eight while winger Manu Vatuvei and centre Jerome Ropati have seven, Ropati scoring his in just eight appearances. Simon Mannering, Grant Rovelli and Michael Witt are close behind with six.
Witt, who has kicked 35 goals from 37 attempts so far, needs six points to reach 100 this season. With his first goal last weekend he brought up 400 points in his first-grade career.
VODAFONE WARRIORS v SYDNEY ROOSTERS
Aussie Stadium, Sydney
2.00pm, Sunday, August 5
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1
| WADE McKINNON
|
2
| MICHAEL CROCKETT
|
3
| JEROME ROPATI
|
4
| SIMON MANNERING
|
5
| MANU VATUVEI
|
6
| MICHAEL WITT
|
7
| GRANT ROVELLI
|
8
| SAM RAPIRA
|
9
| GEORGE GATIS
|
10
| STEVE PRICE (c)
|
11
| RUBEN WIKI (vc)
|
12
| LOGAN SWANN
|
13
| MICHEAL LUCK
|
| | Interchange:
|
14
| WAIRANGI KOOPU
|
15
| EVARN TUIMAVAVE
|
16
| EPALAHAME LAUAKI
|
18
| NATHAN FIEN
|
COACH: IVAN CLEARY
