New Zealand Warriors’ clash with Newcastle moved to Eden Park in historic finals first
The Warriors will make history when they host their first NRL final at Eden Park after the governing body announced the venue for the club’s elimination final.
The NRL confirmed the Warriors would play Newcastle at Eden Park next Sunday at 6.05pm (4.05pm AEST) in week two of the finals.
The Warriors’ first preference is to play at Mt Smart Stadium where their support is through the roof.
Eden Park holds 50,000 people however and is a more modern stadium, compared to Mt Smart where a sold-out crowd of 26,131 created a cauldron-like atmosphere in the Warriors’ 26-16 loss to the Dolphins in Saturday night’s qualifying final.
The Warriors have hosted five finals in their history in Auckland, but all at Mt Smart. They have not played a game at Eden Park since 2014 when they beat the Raiders by 42 points, which was 4509 days ago.
The Warriors have injury concerns ahead of the clash with the Knights, who they beat 46-32 in Auckland in Round 25.
They lost strike centre Leka Halasima in the warm-up to the Dolphins clash with the Tonga international clutching at his right leg.
“It was a hamstring in the warm-up, nothing related to what he’s been having which was an ankle injury,” coach Andrew Webster said.
“He just felt his hamstring in the first stride out and reported it straight away yeah, couldn’t go.
Halasima is set to miss the Newcastle clash amid fears that prop Jackson Ford’s injury comeback will be short-lived.
Ford, on return after a 12-week pectoral tear layoff, limped off against the Dolphins with an ankle complaint.
The Warriors were never in full cry in attack against the Dolphins with five penalty goals edging them to a 16-8 lead, but also denying them the chance near the opposition tryline to perhaps put the game to bed.
“We didn’t get the opportunity to get a flow in to our attack,” Webster said.
“That’s the negative side of taking the penalty goals. But to stretch the lead out to eight points, we had to do it. It’s a no-brainer.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on 7news.com.au — the content belongs to 7NEWS Australia.
