League: Warriors face torrid run without Vatuvei

Manu Vatuvei will miss some crucial early matches. That's the optimistic scenario. Photo / Dean Purcell

It's backs-to-the-wall time already for the Warriors just one game into the NRL season.

Stripped of their best player, Manu Vatuvei, by an ugly 14th-minute chop to the knees, for what is likely to be a third of the season, the Warriors now face a torrid run of matches.

It begins with a Saturday night trip to Sydney to face the highly fancied Wests Tigers, followed by a first Mt Smart home match against the defending premiers St George Illawarra.

Beaten Grand Finalists Sydney Roosters also visit Auckland, ahead of back-to-back trips to Melbourne and Manly. The only let-up in a brutal opening two months is the round-four match against the Sharks in Taupo, and even that is a trip into the unknown.

Having had his right knee torpedoed by an insane tackle from Etu Uaisele, Vatuvei will miss all of those matches. That's the optimistic scenario. An early diagnosis of a medial ligament strain that should take six to eight weeks to heal has yet to be confirmed. Vatuvei is to undergo scans today. He said he was praying for the right result. His teammates and coaches might well spend a bit of time on their knees too.

Joining the giant winger on the sidelines for a spell could be key five-eighth James Maloney. The most penalised man in the NRL last season is in the dock early this year, on report for a crude off-the-ball hit on Eels match-winner Jarryd Hayne.

Maloney ripped Hayne's boot off and threw it into the crowd in the first half of the third instalment of league's doomsday Eden Park trilogy on Saturday night. The missing slipper slowed Hayne up for three tackles. Maloney's second attack on him seemed calculated to slow the brilliant fullback up for a lot longer.

Maloney won't learn his final fate until later this week, but it would be a surprise if the match review committee did not charge him today.

With fullback Lance Hohaia launching his 10th season in the NRL with a performance to forget, and debutant winger Glen Fisiiahi also failing to cope with a barrage of Hayne bombs, the Warriors have no shortage of pressing issues. "We certainly didn't handle it as well as you'd like," coach Ivan Cleary said of the Hayne Playne's deadly payload.

Eels coach Stephen Kearney said the sky-raid wasn't premeditated. Hohaia's struggles mean the next one certainly will be.

"I'm not going to sit here and talk about Lance," Kearney said. "The kid on the wing dropped a couple too."

He did, but it was hard not to feel some sympathy for Fisiiahi. He was the victim of two poor refereeing decisions early in the match, while Hohaia wasn't exactly a pillar of strength alongside him as Hayne's kicks rained down.

Fisiiahi's struggles evoked memories of a similar night endured by Vatuvei in 2007, also against the Eels. Cleary was confident the young speedster would make a similarly robust recovery.

"He'll bounce back," Cleary said. "Part of the reason I went with him in the first place is that I have a lot of confidence in him to be able to bounce back. He had a tough night but that is part of footy and part of playing in the NRL."

Cleary pronounced himself ready to get on the rollercoaster ahead of a season-opener that attracted a record crowd but gave them little reason to cheer. For the Warriors the match was more akin to one of those fairground attractions that drops folks from a great height, simulating a fall off a cliff.

A decent enough comeback in the final 20 minutes may have arrested the fall but it wasn't enough, leaving the Warriors to survey some ugly wreckage. Captain Simon Mannering declined the invitation to blame an Eden Park curse that also claimed the Kiwis in 1988 and 2010.

"It's a different venue but it is the same old game and you've got to do the same things to win," Mannering said.

"We let ourselves down in the first half and made it too hard."

Some minor consolation could be found in the team-list the Auckland Vulcans submitted for their NSW Cup opener against Wentworthville in Sydney. Kevin Locke, Kristan Inu and Bill Tupou - all potential replacements for Vatuvei - were in it, as were Isaac John, Pita Godinet, Jeremy Latimore, Ukuma Ta'ai, Alehana Mara and Elijah Taylor.

The Vulcans don't tend to win too many games in the second tier comp, but that high-powered line-up was too strong for Wentworthville, winning 20-12, with Mara scoring twice.

Cleary declined to say who would replace Vatuvei, though it would appear to be between Locke and Inu.