NZ Warriors wahine embrace unknown in NRLW return
Photo:
Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
As they emerge from a four-year NRLW hiatus, NZ Warriors women are determined to make the unknown their friend.
A foundation member of the competition in 2018, the Auckland club was forced to close down its women's programme in 2020, when the Covid pandemic precluded trans-Tasman travel.
The Warriors wahine will return to the fold on Sunday, when they face Sydney Roosters, fielding a
largely untried line-up against the defending champions
.
Only one player -
captain and fullback Apii Nicholls
- has worn a Warriors jersey before and only six others have previous NRLW experience. The rest have either been plucked from NZ domestic competition or lured across from the other rugby code.
"The best thing about our girls is, because they either rookies or new to the code, so they're oblivious to the Sydney Roosters and who's in there," veteran prop Harata Butler observed. "Let's not even talk about them.
"Everyone in the rugby league community knows what we're going up against, but nobody knows what they're going up against. I think it's good to run with that and let's just see what we pull out on the weekend."
The Warriors begin their campaign without the benefit of a pre-season trial to test their very new combinations. On the flip side, rivals have had very little footage to scout entering the new season.
That mystery factor leaves a blank slate for the wahine to create their own reputations and, if training performances are anything to go by, they promise to leave a dent in their opponents.
"If you meet our forward pack, I'm pretty sure there's a few loose screws in some of them, me too maybe," chuckled lock Laishon Albert-Jones, who helped Newcastle Knights, under now-Warriors coach Ron Griffiths, to the 2023 NRLW crown.
"They're tough as, I don't even like running at them - I'm probably the most pussy of all of them.
"I get scared at training sometimes, just saying. I'm glad they're on my team and I don't have to verse them anymore.
"If there's anything we bring to this NRLW season, it's that we are a tough team and it will be a hard day with us, and you won't want to play us again."
As the team strive to create their playing style, this much seems a given - they'll be physical.
"To be honest, if you play rugby league, it's such a high-contact sport, everyone's got a couple of screws loose," chuckled halfback Emily Curtain, whose Muay Thai fighting nickname is 'Pitbull'.
"My second personality, once I step over the line or the ropes, it's 'go' time," she explained. "Time to switch on and let everything out."
Griffiths guided the Knights to two titles and a semifinal during his three-year tenure there, but he has put the league on notice that his new outfit will bring something completely different.
"If you look at every Warriors team, they're tough," he said. "This team will pull trees up for each other.
"They're connected, they work hard, they're humble, but one thing they've done is they've shown a certain level of toughness that we haven't seen in NRLW before.
"That's not taking anything away from teams I've coached or the current champs or anyone else, but they're extremely tough, that's who they are."
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