Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Ligi Sao return from long injury lay-offs for their first outings of the season when the Vodafone Warriors face Wests Tigers in their third-round Intrust Super Premiership encounter at Campbelltown Sports Stadium in west Sydney on Saturday (1.00pm kick-off local time).
Nicoll-Klokstad, the club’s ISP 2016 player of the year, starts at fullback while Sao is set to make his return from the bench. Both players had offseason surgery.
The Vodafone Warriors will be seeking a third straight win after successes against the Newcastle Knights (52-24) and the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (36-22) in the first two rounds of the season. They face a Tigers side coming off losses to Wyong (0-42) and Penrith (12-52).
Tuimoala Lolohea is listed on the right wing but has also been included on the NRL side’s extended bench to take on the Bulldogs in Dunedin. The powerful Sipley brothers Toafofoa and Patrick are named to start in the front row.
The NYC side travels to Sydney to take on its Canterbury-Bankstown counterparts at Belmore Sports Ground on Saturday (1.30pm kick-off local time).
In a much-improved performance, the Vodafone Junior Warriors lost 12-20 to Melbourne last Friday night.
While they have two losses so do the young Bulldogs, going down to Brisbane (18-24) and the Sydney Roosters (12-34).
INTRUST SUPER PREMIERSHIP
VODAFONE WARRIORS v WESTS TIGERS
Campbelltown Sports Stadium, Sydney
1.00pm, Saturday, March 18
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1 CHARNZE NICOLL-KLOKSTAD
2 JUNIOR PAUGA
3 SEMISI FOTU
4 MATT ALLWOOD
5 TUIMOALA LOLOHEA
6 SAM COOK
7 MASON LINO (c)
8 PATRICK SIPLEY
9 JAZZ TEVAGA
10 TOAFOFOA SIPLEY
11 OFAHIKI OGDEN
12 ISAIAH PAPALII
13 JAMES BELL
Interchange:
14 TEVIN ARONA
15 DANIEL PALAVI
16 LIGI SAO
17 REECE CHARLIE
18 PAULOS LATU
COACH | RICKY HENRY
NYC
VODAFONE WARRIORS v CANTERBURY-BANKSTOWN BULLDOGS
Belmore Sports Ground, Sydney
1.30pm, Saturday, March 18
VODAFONE JUNIOR WARRIORS
1 KANE TELEA
2 LEWIS SOOSEMEA
25 MELINO FINEANGANOFO
4 MATT FAITOTOA
5 EDWARD VAEAU-MULITALO
6 CHANEL HARRIS-TAVITA
7 EIDEN ACKLAND
8 KENESE KENESE (c)
21 CHRIS SIO (c)
10 SOANE HUFANGA
11 JOE VUNA
12 HAVI TUPOUNIUA
13 SHANE HANNAM
Interchange:
9 LIAM HAMPSON
15 JEROME MAMEA
16 JORDAN PINNOCK
22 NATHAN NEWTON
23 ELIJAH SUFIA
14 DYLAN TAVITA
3 GIBSON POPOALII
17 AUZZIE TUWHANGAI
18 LEE TURNER
24 PRESTON RIKI
COACH | GRANT POCKLINGTON
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1 CHARNZE
