NRL: Vatuvei's vitality team's talisman

Manu Vatuvei. Photo / Getty Images

It won't surprise anyone to know Manu Vatuvei is important to the Warriors. What is less well known is that they have't won any of their last nine games without him.

The 24-year-old is one of the most devastating wingers in the NRL. He's scored 35 tries in his last 40 games, including six in just four games this season.

The Warriors have won three of four games when he's taken the field but last night slumped to their third-straight loss. Vatuvei has been missing for all three.

To emphasise the point, the Warriors lost every time he was absent last year through injury.

Vatuvei has been in losing line-ups but since the start of 2009, his winning record is superior to most of his team-mates, raising questions about the Warriors' reliance on the giant winger.

Vatuvei has led the Warriors in line breaks and tries for the past two seasons and still leads those categories this year, despite missing four games.

He's also in the top three for tackle breaks and top two for metres gained.

It could be argued Vatuvei is just doing his job but his presence as 'The Beast' is verging on cult status.

Former Kiwis winger-turned-commentator Daryl Halligan is prepared to make a weighty comparison.

"The Warriors miss Manu the way the Melbourne Storm would miss Greg Inglis," Halligan says. "His statistics speak for themselves.

"Take the recent win over the Bulldogs. One minute he was making a bust down the right, then a couple of minutes later, he was tidying up something on the left.

"Not only is he a boost to team morale, he lifts the crowd, too, and supplies the sort of physicality Kiwis like to see in their league.

"We've had the silky skills of Stacey Jones as the crowd favourite at his peak and now we've got big Manu.

"He hasn't always been pretty on the field but he has worked on the weaker aspects of his game to become reasonably complete.

"You even see him scoring tries by out-leaping people now, as well as the usual barging runs from two metres or 100m out. He's someone New Zealanders can cherish."

Warriors coach Ivan Cleary is well aware of the qualities Vatuvei brings to the team.

"It is par for the course at the moment - missing key players for the majority of our games," Cleary says.

"Is Manu vital, though? Yes, he is.

"You can't dodge the fact he's a huge part of our team either scoring tries or just through the work he does around the field. He's not far from returning but we've got to hold the fort in the meantime, hopefully until after the bye week."

Vatuvei's return can't come soon enough.

Interestingly, the team won a bigger percentage of games when Vatuvei wasn't there in 2008. But they have become much more reliant on him since.

Centre Jerome Ropati has formed a good partnership with Vatuvei on the left hand side of the field. He is well aware of the gap left by his absence.

"He's one of the most important components in our team who gets our sets going with plenty of metres," Ropati says.

"Having played with him regularly the last few years, I think my game has improved, too.

"He does things the average winger doesn't normally do and relieves some of the pressure."

Halligan agrees and believes Vatuvei's defence has improved out of sight.

"In years gone by, you could have had a crack running the ball on his side of the field. He makes good decisions out wide now and, if you haven't been impressed with his development recently, you haven't really been watching."