League: Broncos star studded says Warrior

Warriors prop Ruben Wiki says the Brisbane Broncos will lose little even if Kangaroo frontrower Petero Civoniceva fails to take the field against the New Zealand Warriors tomorrow night.

Civoniceva is doubtful for the National Rugby League clash in Brisbane after receiving a knee injury in the Broncos' 29-16 win over North Queensland last weekend.

Second rower Dane Carlaw, who himself is returning from shoulder injury, is on stand-by to take Civoniceva's place.

Wiki had been preparing this week to meet the Australian test propping pair of Civoniceva and Shane Webcke at Suncorp Stadium.

He last fronted up against them as Kiwi skipper in the Tri-Nations tests in Auckland and London last October.

But he said the Broncos' depth meant the Warriors faced a tough battle no matter who Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett put on the field.

"Civoniceva lays the platform with Webcke, but Dane Carlaw is no slouch," he said.

"They have a star-studded side. Whoever gets on will do the damage."

Wiki was looking forward to coming up against bench forward Brad Thorn again after Thorn's stint in rugby union, which brought him an All Black jersey.

Thorn's return to the NRL last weekend was marked by 14 hit-ups for 128 metres.

While Thorn did take some time initially to adjust to the 15-man game, Wiki was sure that the switch back to league would be relatively straight forward for the former Kangaroo.

"He's been there before, so it won't take him much to get back into it," he said.

"Good on him for coming back. He played Super 12 and for the All Blacks, which was something he wanted to do. No doubt he will have some goals for this year."

After 12 seasons with Canberra, Wiki, 32, made his NRL debut for the Warriors in their 26-20 loss to Manly last Sunday.

He turned in a strong display in a match punctuated by handling errors by both sides.

He and fellow new boy Steve Price got the go-forward the Warriors wanted from them, with Wiki making a game-high 184 metres from his 19 hit-ups.

He agreed with skipper Price and coach Tony Kemp's post-match assessment that the Warriors were on the right track, and only handling errors on a humid day let them down.

"Our fitness was great -- we lasted the distance, 80 minutes," he said.

"It was the bounce of the ball. It happens in a game of footy."

Wiki said nothing much had changed in training this week, although the Warriors knew they needed to improve their completion rate of just 27 of their 45 sets.

"Footy is a funny game, the ball isn't round and it happens," he said of poor handling.

"Every team does it. We really want to concentrate this week. The boys are really keen to go again. We're a really tight unit and we want to kick on and play this week."

Meanwhile, Kemp said statistics showed that Wiki and Price were among the top four front rowers in the NRL's opening round last weekend, with Wiki gaining more metres than anyone.

"One thing our halves did say was that it was great to be able to kick from the halfway line or inside the opposition half," he said.

"That makes a lot of difference."

- NZPA