POMPEY, WILIAME GET CENTRE NOD FOR SEASON OPENER

By TWL on February 28, 2023 • ( 0 )

Via Warriors Media

Six offseason signings will make their first NRL appearances for the One New Zealand Warriors in Friday night’s first-round encounter with the Newcastle Knights at Wellington’s Sky Stadium (8.00pm kick-off). And a seventh will be playing his first NRL game for the club since the last of his seven previous matches in 2017.

Of the first starting line-up named by new head coach Andrew Webster just four were starters in the final game of the 2022 season against Gold Coast Titans – winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, props Addin Fonua-Blake and Tohu Harris and hooker Wayde Egan – while three from that team – Bunty Afoa, Josh Curran and Tom Ale – are on the bench
this week.

After missing the 2022 season finale through injury winger Marcelo Montoya, centre Adam Pompey and half Shaun Johnson return but highlighting the selection are seven of
the club’s acquisitions:

• Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad resumes his club career after 66 appearances for the Canberra Raiders over the last four seasons.
• Brayden Wiliame will become Warrior #273 when he starts in the centres after 46 earlier NRL appearances for Parramatta, Manly Warringah and St George Illawarra as well as a stint with Les Catalans in the Super League and a test of rugby union in France.
• Te Maire Martin is at standoff as Warrior #274 after a total of 68 appearances for Penrith, North Queensland and Brisbane.
• Starting at prop as Warrior #275 will be the seasoned Mitchell Barnett, who has played 126 times for Newcastle since 2016 following a two-match rookie season with Canberra in 2015.
• Jackson Ford becomes Warrior #276 as the first of two new second rowers after playing 33 times for St George Illawarra since his debut in 2019.
• Partnering him as Warrior #277 is Kiwi international Marata Niukore, a club junior who played in the NYC and the New South Wales Cup but now lines up in the jersey in the NRL for the first time after 96 games with Parramatta, the last in the 2022 grand final against Penrith.
• Rounding out the newcomers on the bench is gifted utility Dylan Walker, a grand final winner with South Sydney in 2014 who has made a total of 186 appearances for the Rabbitohs and Manly Warringah.

Webster’s first side reflects the 17 used in the 6-24 trial lost to Melbourne on February 19, the only change in the centres where Pompey comes in for Viliami Vailea. This will be the first time in 25 years and just the third time in their history that the One Zealand Warriors have opened an NRL campaign on a Friday night; the last was against South Sydney in 1998 and the first unforgettably against Brisbane on March 10, 1995.

ONE NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS v NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS
8.00pm (NZT), Friday, February 28, 2023
Sky Stadium, Wellington
ONE NEW ZEALAND WARRIORS
1 CHARNZE NICOLL-KLOKSTAD
2 DALLIN WATENE-ZELEZNIAK
3 BRAYDEN WILIAME
4 ADAM POMPEY
5 MARCELO MONTOYA
6 TE MAIRE MARTIN
7 SHAUN JOHNSON
8 ADDIN FONUA-BLAKE
9 WAYDE EGAN
10 MITCHELL BARNETT
11 JACKSON FORD
12 MARATA NIUKORE
13 TOHU HARRIS (c)
Interchange:
14 DYLAN WALKER
15 BUNTY AFOA
16 JOSH CURRAN
17 TOM ALE
18 VILIAMI VAILEA
20 FREDDY LUSSICK
21 RONALD VOLKMAN
22 TAINE TUAUPIKI
23 EDWARD KOSI
Head coach | ANDREW WEBSTER