Rd 21 Team Update: Bench move

After being listed on the extended bench on Tuesday, back rowers Bayley Sironen and Josh Curran have tonight been confirmed on the interchange for the One New Zealand Warriors’ 21st-round NRL clash against the Canberra Raiders at Go Media Stadium Mt Smart tomorrow night (8.00pm kick-off).

Sironen was selected in jersey #18 and Curran in #20 when the squad was named earlier in the week.

But 24 hours out from kick-off head coach Andrew Webster has brought the pair back onto the bench where they were used in the 44-12 win over Cronulla Sutherland last Sunday; Sironen will make his 49th appearance for the club.

After appearing in each of the club’s 18 games so far, front rower Tom Ale is omitted from the game day squad for the first time this season to enable him to play some minutes for the club’s New South Wales Cup side in tomorrow night’s curtain raiser against Canberra (5.30pm kick-off).

Also moved out of the 17 to 18th man is hooker Freddy Lussick with fullback Taine Tuaupiki retained as 19th man.

As well as Ale, halfback Ronald Volkman and centre Viliami Vailea have been omitted from the 19-man game day squad.

Making their returns tomorrow night are second rower Marata Niukore and prop Bunty Afoa.

Niukore rejoins Jackson Ford in the second row after missing the last three games through suspension while Afoa is named as a starting prop again in his return from one week off following NRL concussion protocols.

Ford, having a breakout season, starts for the 17th time this year in what will be the 50th match of his NRL career.

He arrived at the club with 33 games for St George Illawarra Dragons spread over four seasons including just five last year. After being used predominantly as an interchange player by the Dragons, Jackson has been a starting second rower every game he has played this year averaging 105 metres and 35 tackles a game with three tries, six line breaks and 38 tackle breaks and also playing 80 minutes 11 times.

While head coach Andrew Webster has again made changes to the pack, he has an unchanged backline for the fifth match on end.

Winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak collected another double ln Sunday’s 44-12 trouncing of Cronulla Sutherland to leave him fifth on the competition’s try-scoring list with 15 in 12 games, 13 of them in his last eight appearances.

With 40-plus points scored in their last three wins over St George Illawarra (48-18), Parramatta (46-10) and Cronulla Sutherland (44-12), the One New Zealand Warriors have boosted their points for and against differential to plus 110.

Their 11-7 record has them in fifth spot on 26 points two behind the fourth-placed Raiders who had their third and final bye last weekend.

The Canberra encounter will be the first of three Friday night fixtures to finish the One New Zealand Warriors’ regular season home campaign with Manly Warringah to follow in round 25 (the Daniel Anderson Round) on August 18 and St George Illawarra in round 26 on August 25.

Tickets are again moving quickly with the sixth consecutive 20,000-plus crowd in store in the club’s best-supported season at home since the debut year in 1995.

The biggest home crowd of the campaign – 24,012 – was in attendance for the Warriors’ stunning win over Cronulla Sutherland last Sunday pushing the aggregate for the six games at Go Media Stadium so far to 132,995 (an average crowd of 22,165 a game).