Chanel Harris-Tavita returns to the halves for the Vodafone Warriors’ 13 th -round NRL clash against the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at Lottoland in Sydney on Friday (6.00pm kick-off local time; 8.00pm NZT).
The club’s 2019 NRL rookie of the year is a straight swap for veteran halfback Blake Green, who requested and was granted an immediate release from the rest of his contract today to join the Newcastle Knights.
Injury ruled the 21-year-old Harris-Tavita out of contention for last Friday night’s superb 26-20 win over the Wests Tigers after picking up a wrist injury in the 11 th -round loss to the Sydney Roosters.
He’ll be playing his 20 th career match, his seventh game of the season after mixing three appearances at standoff and three from the interchange bench. It will be the first time he has been at halfback since being used in the #7 jersey with three different halves partners early last season when Green was injured.
Harris-Tavita’s selection apart, the line-up named is unchanged from the one used against the Tigers. The starting pack remains intact for third week running.
Four of the starting forwards all topped 100 metres last week – Tohu Harris (181), Jazz Tevaga (168), Jack Hetherington (139) and Eliesa Katoa (131) – while Lachlan Burr was outstanding from the bench with 150 metres from 17 runs in his 44 minutes on the field.
Also retained is the bench of hooker Wayde Egan and middle forwards Adam Blair, Daniel Alvaro and Burr.
The only other change is on the extended bench with outside back Gerard Beale named in jersey #22 replacing middle forward Josh Curran.
The Vodafone Warriors will again be seeking rare back-to-back victories after last winning two on end against St George Illawarra and Penrith in May last year.
Success against the Sea Eagles is rare with only 10 wins in 34 attempts since 1995. It’s even rarer in Australia where the Vodafone Warriors haven’t won since Stacey Jones’ comeback match in 2009 but have won two of the last three (at Mount Smart Stadium when they last met in 2019 and in Christchurch in 2018).
VODAFONE WARRIORS v MANLY WARRINGAH SEA EAGLES
6.00pm, Friday, August 7, 2020
Lottoland, Sydney
Referee: Henry Perenara
VODAFONE WARRIORS
1 ROGER TUIVASA-SHECK (c)
2 PATRICK HERBERT
3 ADAM POMPEY
4 PETA HIKU
5 GEORGE JENNINGS
6 KODI NIKORIMA
7 CHANEL HARRIS-TAVITA
8 JAMAYNE TAUNOA-BROWN
9 KARL LAWTON
10 JACK HETHERINGTON
11 ELIESA KATOA
12 TOHU HARRIS
13 JAZZ TEVAGA
Interchange:
14 WAYDE EGAN
15 ADAM BLAIR
16 DANIEL ALVARO
17 LACHLAN BURR
18 ISAIAH PAPALI’I
20 ADAM KEIGHRAN
21 JACK MURCHIE
22 GERARD BEALE
HEAD COACH | TODD PAYTEN