Titans vs Warriors
* Skilled Park, today 3pm.
* Referees: Matt Cecchin & Chris James.
Most gazes will be focused on the all-important halves combination on both sides when the Warriors meet the Titans in their opening NRL fixture today - but just as important will be the form of props Sam Rapira, Russell Packer and new recruit Jeremy Latimore.
This season shapes as a
big one for Rapira. With former captain Steve Price's ongoing heel injury, Rapira's 86 games in the NRL promote him into "veteran" category. This is also the season that he must begin to take over fully from Price - and many see this as Rapira's big year.
Price will undoubtedly play a large part in the Warriors' campaign this year and it will undoubtedly be with his usual professionalism and considerable ability. But, just as his loss of the captaincy was engineered by the club with the future in mind, so Rapira's season will be watched with Price-less years to come.
It will be no easy task assuming the Price mantle. In a season considered to have been interrupted by injury and unavailability, Price still headed the NRL stats for average metres made per game by a front rower during the season - 145.1m, with the next best being Penrith's Petero Civoniceva with 139.7.
Stats far from present the perfect picture of a player, of course, but Price in his 14 matches headed Rapira in almost all departments other than tackle count - runs, metres gained, tries, assists and offloads.
Knowledgeable folk in the game rate Rapira's ability highly, especially as he was hauling round a painful chest injury for much of last season; a fact which did not stop him playing most of the Warriors' matches.
Talking of combinations, this could also be a big year for the 20-year-old Packer. He has shown something of a nose for the tryline (three tries in his 10 matches last year) and is a big man; a handful for defenders in the right mood. With weight and injury problems behind him this could be a big year for Packer, too, if injuries hit the Warriors.
Latimore is also a big man (1.91m, about 6ft 3in in the old measure) and about 105kg and it will be interesting to see how he adds to the seven matches he played for the Eels in 2009.
Today, the Warriors front rowers face a couple of wily veterans in Luke Bailey and Brad Meyers. The duo have 318 NRL caps between them (Bailey 169, Meyers 149); they've also played State of Origin and internationals.
Packer remains undaunted: "We've had some good performances in the trials, a couple of wins and a tough draw against Manly. I don't look into the age thing much. You can't blame age for any failure because you're equals out there. I'm accountable regardless."
He's also quick to point out the assistance he's had from Rapira to maintain such pre-season confidence.
"Sammy's played a lot for the Kiwis and will push towards 100 games for the Warriors this season, so I'm looking to him for help. Bailey and Meyers are both experienced, so obviously you want to stake a claim for yourself against such quality opposition."
Rapira has matched his propping partner's sentiments: "Russell has been training well and looking good in the trials. He has that bit of mongrel there and he's gone well, strength-wise."
Rapira has no fear of fatigue in steamy conditions. "I think it comes down to the mental side of your game - if you go over there thinking it's going to be hot, it will be. You've got to play no matter what and if you're only on the field for 20 minutes at a time you've just got to go hard."
Coach Ivan Cleary says his props' form in the trials has been encouraging.
"With Steve out, Sam is the front row leader. He handles responsibility naturally. Russell's now been with us for a while too, and he seems older than 20 with his level of maturity."
The Titans come in as favourites after last year's first finals appearance. One of the focal points will be the pairing of Greg Bird and Scott Prince in the halves. Bird is making his first appearance in the NRL since returning from his time with the Catalans Dragons, and after charges of reckless wounding and making a false accusation to police were dismissed in November regarding the alleged glassing of his girlfriend.
"Scott Prince is one of the top five players in the competition," says Cleary, "certainly in the last two to three years and, before his troubles, Greg Bird was playing for Australia. They're right up there as star players."
Cleary has countered that with the Warriors own progress and their one potential trump card.
"The direction and kicking game from Brett Seymour and James Maloney has been good in the trial games. They've held up their end of the bargain on defence too. It's also great to have Brent Tate back. Every time he's trained, he's looked in good nick and in the last two weeks he's been at full clip, which breeds confidence."
Despite that, talk across the Tasman and in betting agencies like sportsbet.com.au, lists the Warriors as third favourite for the wooden spoon. That hasn't deterred Packer's focus: "Wooden spoon?" he looks incredulous. "I don't buy into that. If we win a couple of games, suddenly we're favourites. What people write at the start of a 24-game season is often not what they're writing at the end of it."
"Being told we're up for the wooden spoon doesn't affect me as a player or a person," says Rapira. "This talk that we've got no chance in hell makes me want to prove people wrong though. I've got faith."
The Warriors struck further problems with fullback Wade McKinnon, originally selected for the bench, having to pull out through injury yesterday.
TITANS v WARRIORS
Titans
1 Preston Campbell
2 Kevin Gordon
3 Mat Rogers
4 Joseph Tomane
5 David Mead
6 Greg Bird
7 Scott Prince (c)
8 Luke Bailey
9 Nathan Friend
10 Brad Meyers
11 Anthony Laffranchi
12 Mark Minichiello
13 Ashley Harrison
Titans Interchange: (from) Matthew White, Sam Tagataese, Will Matthews, Riley Brown, Michael Henderson, William Zillman, Bodene Thompson.
Warriors
1 Lance Hohaia
2 Kevin Locke
3 Brent Tate
4 Jerome Ropati
5 Manu Vatuvei
6 James Maloney
7 Brett Seymour
8 Sam Rapira
9 Aaron Heremaia
10 Russell Packer
11 Lewis Brown
12 Ben Matulino
13 Micheal Luck (c)
Warriors Interchange: (from) Jeremy Latimore, Jesse Royal, Sione Lousi, Joel Moon, one to be added.
TOP PROPS
Warriors front-row stats from 2009, contrasted with some high performers from last year's NRL:
Steve Price
Matches - 14
Tries - 3
Metres - 2031
Offloads - 28
Tackles (per game) - 23.1
Sam Rapira
Matches - 18
Tries - 2
Metres1 - 878
Offloads - 16
Tackles (per game) - 25.2
Russell Packer
Matches - 10
Tries - 3
Metres - 928
Offloads - 6
Tackles (per game) - 23.2
Luke Bailey
Matches - 20
Tries - 3
Metres - 2656
Offloads - 14
Tackles (per game) - 28.0
Nathan Cayless
Matches - 26
Tries - 0
Metres - 2736
Offloads - 42
Tackles (per game) - 26.0
Roy Asotasi
Matches - 20
Tries - 1
Metres - 2321
Offloads - 10
Tackles (per game) - 26.6
Petero Civoniceva
Matches - 12
Tries - 0
Metres - 1676
Offloads - 18
Tackles (per game) - 26.4