League: Unfamiliar role for Jones in comeback

Stacey Jones can only recall coming off the bench once throughout his career. Photo / Getty Images

Club legend Stacey Jones is preparing for an unfamiliar role when the New Zealand Warriors take on National Rugby League premiers Manly in Sydney on Sunday.

The champion halfback, who has come out of a one-year retirement to return to the NRL after three seasons away, will begin on the bench.

Jones, 32, has played a club record 238 games for the Warriors, almost all in the starting 13, before he left at the end of 2005 for the English Super League.

He needed to stop and think today when asked if he could remember how often he had come off the bench in his 11 previous seasons with the Auckland-based club.

"Maybe once, I think - my first game."

Jones made his NRL debut against Parramatta in Sydney in round seven of 1995, the Warriors' inaugural season in the competition.

He got five minutes on the field after having played a full match in reserve grade.

A starter ever since, Jones wasn't sure how different it would be to be a substitute, apart from knowing that he wouldn't be going the distance.

"I guess it makes it a bit easier, because every time you start a game, you go in with the mentality that you're going to play 80 minutes," he said.

"For me being out of the game so long, I've been given the opportunity to come off the bench where I won't be playing 80 minutes."

A calf strain ruled Jones out of the Warriors' season-opening 26-18 win over the Eels in Auckland last Saturday night.

As with any game, there were sure to be butterflies in the stomach before he ran out at Brookvale Oval.

"There were nerves before I played the trials," he said.

"I was quite happy to get through those games knowing that I can still play at that level. This is a little bit different. It's a full-on competition game."

Jones said he wouldn't really get a gauge on how much the NRL had sped up in his time away until he got on the field.

The action looked quick against Parramatta last weekend, but things always looked quick from the sidelines.

"I think the tackle count was up there, so it must be a bit faster," he said.

"We just have to adapt to however fast the game is."

Jones was comfortable with the fact that his reintroduction to the NRL would be in the difficult environment of facing the defending champions on their own patch.

"Any game is tough," he said.

"In this competition, any team can beat any team on the day, no matter where you're playing.

"Whatever I was going to play in was going to be tough. I expect when I get on the field, I'll be making a few tackles."

With back-up hooker Lance Hohaia sidelined with a knee injury suffered against the Eels, Jones' entry is likely to mean starting halfback Nathan Fien shifting to dummy half.

That would allow starting hooker Ian Henderson to have a breather.

Coach Ivan Cleary said he hadn't decided how much game time Jones would get and it would be a case of seeing how the contest developed.

Cleary ruled out any late change that would see Jones starting the match.

- NZPA