NZ Warriors 2023 Round 1 Review: Resilience Shines Through in Capital Win

With the preseason officially behind us, the NRL is back, and Round 1 saw the Warriors start their campaign hosting the Newcastle Knights in Wellington at Sky Stadium.

I was optimistic but cautious heading into this match and had plenty of time to think about what Warriors team would show up during my long drive from Auckland to Wellington; however, despite a slow start, the Warriors relieved my cautious thoughts and got the job done with a 20-12 victory.

What Went Down

The wind played havoc early as Charnze Nicholl-Klokstad dropped a swirling bomb in this own half. In the next set, Kalyn Ponga threw a short ball to his backrower Lachlan Fitzgibbon for the game's first try.

After 25 minutes of tense back and forth, the Warriors hit back. Mitch Barnett made a break off a no-look pass from Tohu Harris. On the next play, the late replacement Ed Kosi scored in the corner. Following the try, the momentum swung in favour of the Warriors. The ensuing Knights kick-off went out on the full, which led directly to a barnstorming try by Bunty Afoa.

Showing plenty of energy in attack, the Warriors took a 10-6 lead into the halftime break.

The Knights opened the second half with plenty of vigour. With the wind at their backs, they had the Warriors under pressure early. Eventually, the pressure proved too much, as some silky hands from Kalyn Ponga and Bradman Best set up a try for Hymel Hunt. Despite taking the lead back, poor ball control from the Knights let the Warriors off the hook.

With the pressure off, the Warriors wrestled back momentum. Surging into the lead, the home side scored through Charnze Nicholl-Klokstad and followed up with another attacking raid. However, it didn't result in any points despite Phoenix Crossland being sin-binned for consecutive penalties. A highlight of the Warrior's desperate defence was a try-saver from Charnze Nicholl-Klokstad that kept the home side ahead 14-12.

Tensions rose as Kalyn Ponga was forced to leave the field for an HIA. Not long after Ponga departed, the game was decided by a sharp try from dummy half by Wade Egan. He caught the Knights napping to seal a hard-fought eight-point win.

My Thoughts

Well, it's always great to start the year with a win, I have been counting down the days until kick-off, but the closer it got, the more worried I became. The Knights were always a team I had marked down that the Warriors would be able to defeat, but on team naming Tuesday, Newcastle named a tough side. On the long drive to Wellington, I played out many scenarios in my head, but ultimately the tight tussle I predicted came to pass.

Was it the best performance? No, but there were way more positives to pull from this match than negatives, and this was a great platform for the clubs to start their 2023 campaign on.

All the players performed well, there were a few patches where simple mistakes let some players down, but overall they all made up for them as the game progressed.

I spoke in my season preview about what Andrew Webster has done so far in the preseason, and I become a stronger believer each week. It's only early days, but the roster is buying into Webster, and this should only lead to good things.

If you watched the video the Warriors released showing the debutants and Webster getting acknowledged before the match, you could see how much it means to all of them to be with the club and be part of the solution that makes this club competitive again, which is so refreshing in comparison to the past few years where you could see that some of the players were only there collecting paychecks.

While I still have concerns with how tough the first ten Rounds are, we all got to see that this Warriors side is willing to have a dig, so my concerns may start to dwindle.

Before I move on, I just want to say how great it was to be back at a live NRL match; I know we got a few last year, but now it just feels real; the Warriors are actually home, and the Crowd was fantastic, would it have been great to have the first match of the year at Mount Smart, of course, but when the stadium is already booked you have to be flexible, and I love making my trip down to Sky Stadium. I haven't watched a Warriors team lose there, so I would be happy to have it become an annual event.

It was a decent start to the season, which means I found a few things to smile about, which leads me to my positives from the match.

Match Positives

The new signings made an impact; Mitchell Barnett, Dylan Walker, Brayden Wiliame and Marata Niukore, all put their hands up in this match in varying capacities, but the ones I want to discuss are Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad and Jackson Ford.

CNK had probably the worst start to his Warriors return, failing to defuse his first kick of the night, but after that moment, everything else was great; he was always lurking around the pack just waiting for an offload; he defended well, including his try-saver on Kalyn Ponga, and his try was a good display of his support play. As a person who was disappointed in his exit from the club years ago, I am glad that he has returned, and I expect a big year from him.

Jackson Ford was excellent; I was quoted on my show, The Stand-Off, last year, joking about this Dragons player that the Warriors had picked up and dismissed him before giving him a shot, and since the first trial match, he has made me look like an idiot, and I think it is going to take some effort to get that starting spot off him. He looked dangerous with the ball in hand, defended well and never looked tired despite playing the whole 80; a great find by the club and I apologize to Ford for doubting his talent.

The Warrior's goal-line defence was much better than what we became use to in 2022; there were sections of the match where the Knights were camped in the Warrior's red zone with repeat six agains, and the Warriors kept them out. It's cliche, and I've said it many times, but defence is built on attitude, and it's good to see that has improved over the offseason. I want to see this remain throughout the season, especially against those top-tier sides. 

Lastly, the resilience and patience the Warriors showed were what made me proud of the result. This was a game that the Warriors would have lost in 2022, but this is a different outfit, and with the game on the line in the final stages, the Warriors didn't fold and kept pushing forward, and it was the Knights that imploded. As Webster said this is something that he wants to be embedded in the Warrior's DNA, and I really hope that happens.

However, there was one thing that concerned me, bringing me to my game negative.

Match Negative

There wasnt much, to be honest, but the slow starts to both halves hurt; letting in two soft tries in the opening stages of the halves could have set the Warriors on the path to defeat, thankfully that didn't happen, I'm not sure if it something wrong with their preparation, nerves or something else but hopefully they figure it out before this weekends clash against the Roosters.

Warrior of the Match

My Warrior of the match goes to Wayde Egan.

This may have been the best game I have seen from Egan; he delivered the ball nicely out of the ruck including a great short ball to Bunty Afoa to crash over, picked the right moments to sneak out of dummy half, which led to his nice try at the backend of the match. All of this while still contributing defensively with 33 tackles and only two misses. Hopefully, this is a benchmark performance from Egan because if he can deliver like this every week, then the Warrior's chances of nabbing wins become that much easier.

Warrior to Improve

I couldn't pick a Warrior to improve this week, they all did a good job out there, and I couldn't pinpoint anyone that let the side down, and some did not get the required minutes to review their performance.

Next round thoughts and prediction

Round two sees the Warriors head across the ditch to Allianz Stadium to face a Roosters side that was defeated 28-18 by the Dolphins in the first Round.

Regarding the team I would pick, I would keep it exactly the same; I wasnt happy with Adam Pompey being selected, but he and every other player did more than enough to keep their spot so why change it.

This will be a tough match; the Roosters will be hurting from their loss and despite potentially having a few players miss this match due to injury or suspension they still have a dangerous roster. If the Warriors have another slow start, the Roosters could storm ahead and make it a difficult day. However, if the Warriors start strong and show the same determination that they did in Round One, then it is anyone's game. While I am still oozing optimism, I am going to say the Warriors will go 2-0 with an eight-point win here.

So that was a satisfying Round 1, and as usual, I will leave you with some questions.

What did you like most about the victory?

Would you make any changes to the game day 17?

Who was your Player of the day?

What is your score prediction against the Roosters?