Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Warriors v Eels - Teams for Round 1


The Warriors have now named their team for the first game of the season vs the Eels on Saturday. The team is as follows:

1. Wade McKinnon, 2. Michael Crockett, 3. Tony Martin, 4. Lance Hohaia, 5. Manu Vatuvei, 6.Michael Witt, 7. Grant Rovelli, 8. Ruben Wiki, 9. George Gatis, 10. Steve Price (captain), 11.Simon Mannering, 12 Logan Swann, 13. Micheal Luck.

Substitutes: Nathan Fien, Evarn Tuimavave, Epalahame Lauaki, Louis Anderson, Sam Rapira.

Notably as touched on and debated in my earlier post - Lance Hohaia has been selected in the centres. Simon Mannering will join the forwards in the second row together with Logan Swann and Cleary has opted for the Witt/Rovelli combination in the halves. Ropati is nowhere to be seen and Gatis has been preferred to Nathan Fien to start as hooker. So this is a new look side - with no preference being shown for seniority or reputation - this is very encouraging and Cleary is getting creative here - making space for Hiho by putting Mannering in the forwards.

As for the Eels you can check out their team selection here . Key news is that back rower Nathan Hindmarsh and winger Eric Grothe are both out injured. However Ian Hindmarsh has been cleared to play after settling his contractual dispute with former Super League club Catalan Dragans.

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