Roar Guru
The New Zealand Warriors will look to entrench themselves within the top eight when they host the Newcastle Knights at Mt Smart Stadium. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 6pm (AEST).
Only a fortnight ago, the Warriors looked destined to freefall out of finals contention after they were thumped 36-12 by the Gold Coast Titans.
Now, after upsetting the Dragons 18-12 last week, Stephen Kearney’s men are once again sitting four points ahead of the ninth-placed Wests Tigers.
The Warriors are just too predictable – in the sense that they will always be unpredictable.
Since winning five-straight games to open their 2018 campaign, the club have only claimed back-to-back wins once – over the lowly Sea Eagles and Cowboys.
Last week’s six-point win over the Dragons, however, was pleasing in terms of their resilience in defence.
Home advantage will be key here, as the Warriors have won 11 of their past 12 games against the Knights at Mt Smart, and a victory will all but ensure they will feature in September footy.
As for the Knights, they are sweating on the fitness of star halfback Mitchell Pearce, having only won two of nine games played without the former Rooster.
If Pearce is ruled out late, all responsibility in attack will fall onto young gun Kayln Ponga. While he is certainly talented, Newcastle fans can’t expect the youngster to do it all on his own.
With games against the Panthers, Sharks and Dragons to follow, the Knights are a genuine chance of heading into next year off the back of six-straight defeats, which would be a disappointing end to a season that promised so much.
Prediction
The Warriors will cruise to a comfortable win.
Warriors by 16.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting at 6pm (AEST).