By Grant Chapman of rnz.co.nz and is republished with permission
Analysis: Exactly seven days earlier, NZ Warriors coach Andrew Webster sat in exactly this same seat and more or less predicted what would happen.
He was defending his decision to delay the introduction of young powerhouse Leka Halasima off the bench until after halftime of the season-opening win over Sydney Roosters.
“The day will come when Leka will play 80 minutes and I’m looking forward to that day, because it will be awesome, but he doesn’t need to do it right now,” Webster said. “He just needs to own his little time and have that impact.”
A week late, his team needed that performance from ‘Leka the Wrecker’.
Halasima had scored a try with his first touch against Sydney, but a week later, as the Warriors overwhelmed defending minor premiers Canberra Raiders 40-6, he fully lived up to Webster’s faith. Thrust into the starting line-up before kickoff through injury, he went the full distance, producing a try double and making his impact felt all around the park.
“Honestly, we were all just talking in the sheds about how proud we were of Leka,” Webster said. “He got a minute’s notice, knuckled down, scored two tries, but his tackling, his defence, his effort areas were the best parts of his game – and he did it for 80 minutes.
“Happy, super happy.”
To open their 2026 campaign, the Warriors have now put 40 points on two highly rated opponents and, while Webster insisted the Roosters scoreline was flattering, he was comfortable his team had earned every bit of their advantage over these opponents, who had a winning head-to-head historical record against them and had won their last three meetings.
This is just the fourth time the Auckland NRL club has begun a season with back-to-back wins – they have only once strung three together. In 2018, they rattled off five.
“Wins like tonight aren’t a surprise to us, but at the same time, we’ve got to get better,” Webster insisted.
Here’s what else we learned from the win over Canberra:
Best player
Halasima was originally selected to come off the interchange, probably in a very similar role to last week, but all that changed when veteran second-rower Kurt Capewell pulled up lame with a calf strain in warm-ups.
His first try came in the 49th minute, when he chased a kick into goal from halfback Tanah Boyd and dived unopposed for the touchdown.
With just over 10 minutes remaining, he propped off his left foot inside one sprawling defender, brushed off counterpart Noah Martin metres from the line and then tumbled over in the tackle of Kiwis centre Matt Timoko for his second try.
His 35 tackles were only a couple less than team-leading Jackson Ford (37) and he ran for 114 metres. After pacing the Warriors in tries last season with 13, he is already among the competition’s leaders with three in two games.
Supposedly filling in for Luke Metcalf, halfback Tanah Boyd continued to stake his claim for a fulltime role with another outstanding performance, scoring a try, kicking five conversions and a penalty, while providing two try assists.
Webster rated his showing against the Roosters as his best in a Warriors jersey – this was his second best.
Front-rower Ford put in another massive effort – he was finally subbed off with five minutes remaining and was his team’s top fantasy scorer with 75 points. He led the Warriors in tackles and run metres last week, and ran for 154 metres this time.
Centre Ali Leiataua showed why he was missed last season, amid the Warriors’ midfield injuries, and may now take some unseating, when Rocco Berry returns from shoulder surgery.
After entering the game early, fullback Taine Tuaupiki was a constant threat on attack, running more than 200 metres and reminding everyone why he was so valued as Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad’s back-up – for now.
Key moment
Leiataua had already delivered a solid first-half performance, highlighted by six tacklebreaks and an assist on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak’s first try.
With the halftime score level at 6-6, he broke the contest open for the Warriors soon after the break, lurking in midfield to pick off hooker Tom Starling’s pass and gallop 50 metres for the go-ahead try.
The Warriors piled on 34 unanswered second-half points to have the Raiders totally demoralised by the closing minutes.
“That was a bonus,” Webster said of the intercept try. “We spoke about how well they offload the ball and just to stay up.
“Ali was up and made his own luck there. Awesome.”
Try of the game
So many to chose from, but how were the delightful soccer skills of lock Erin Clark in the build-up to Boyd’s try near the end?
Already up 30-6, Boyd created the opportunity with a well-taken 40-20 and then, at the end of the next set, put a kick along the ground towards the goal area.
Clark overran his chase, but flicked the ball up with his heels, and Boyd was following to gather and score.
By then, everything the Warriors attempted turned up diamonds and more than a few Raiders heads went down after this audacious blow.
Injuries
Webster will be holding breath this week over an injury toll that disrupted this line-up against Canberra and may impact future selections.
Capewell’s departure was followed by five-eighth Chanel Harris-Tavita in the ninth minute, after he knocked himself out in a tackle. Fullback Nicoll-Klokstad moved to the halves and Tuaupiki came off the bench to replace him.
Captain James Fisher-Harris was also pulled from the field before halftime for a concussion check, but passed and returned to play an inspirational role in the result.
Ten minutes from the end, Nicoll-Klokstad also left the field for a test. By then, victory was safe and Webster simply slotted hooker Wayde Egan into the vacancy to close it out.
“We have something organised for every situation,” he assured. “Capey went down in warm-up with calf, so straight away, we knew that Leka was going to start.
“We knew, if we got an outside back or half injury, we would activate Taine, and Charnze would move to the halves or centre or wing.
“We had the plan and then Chanel went down, so we activated Taine, and then ‘Nuck’ went down, so we put Wayde Egan at half.”
The substitutions perfectly illustrated how administrators probably envisaged their new six-man interchange working, with teams now able to utilise specialist replacements, like Tuaupiki, off the bench, rather than playing forwards out of position among the backs.
Previously, Harris-Tavita’s injury may have caused an entire re-alignment of the backline, with Nicoll-Klokstad to five-eighth, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to fullback, Adam Pompey to wing and Halasima to centre – or Egan stationed in the halves for most of the contest.
“The best part was the boys were so calm and so clear during adversity,” Webster said.
Harris-Tavita is definitely out next week, so Webster must likely choose between Nicoll-Klokstad out of position or a first-grade debut for Luke Hanson.
If Nicoll-Klokstad failed his head injury assessment – and Webster had no outcome to report – the spine may include both Hanson and Tuaupiki.
Calves are tricky injuries – and trickier the older you get – so Capewell, 32, may need some time to heal. On the positive side, second-rower Marata Niukore, also recovering from a calf, played for the reserves in the curtainraiser and would be a like-for-like replacement.
Co-captain Mitch Barnett also nears a return from last year’s season-ending knee injury.
Canberra Raiders
The visitors started strongly with the opening try to fullback Kaeo Weekes, but had little else to offer for the rest of the journey.
Coach Ricky Stuart is usually the first to point the finger, if he thinks his team has been treated poorly by match officials, but this contest wasn’t close enough to blame anyone else.
“Disappointed with the result and the scoreline obviously,” he offered. “When you’re on, you’re on and when you’re off, you’re off.
“We had our chances, but they defended very well. You can’t take anything away from their defence – they scrambled well and defended well.
“That intercept, and then we made an error and they scored off that to put them 12 ahead,” Stuart identified the turning point. “With a big home crowd behind them and them on the front foot, it was going to be a big task coming back.”
After needing Golden Point to overcome Manly Sea Eagles in their season opener, the ‘Green Machine’ face another examination next week, when they host Canterbury Bulldogs, who also needed extra time to edge St George Dragons in their Vegas opener, before drawing the bye this week.
Tuivasa-Sheck 150th
The veteran wing had a mixed night, not at all helped by the loss of Capewell and Harris-Tavita from his edge.
He had a pass thrown behind him and another that dipped at his feet in the first half, but eventually led his team with 210 running metres.
While he couldn’t find the tryline in his milestone game for the club, RTS was caught off guard, when Boyd tossed him the ball to convert Watene-Zelezniak’s final try.
“Just hit and hope,” he winked. “I was in shock at the time, but all the boys were egging me on, so I took the role on and was surprised it went over.”
Tuivasa-Sheck kept the kick low, with a little right-to-left fade that steered it safely between the uprights.
Webster observed: “If we’d missed the top eight by two points, I was never going to forgive him.”
What the result means
Again, too early in the season to make any definitive difference on the competition table yet – but Warriors are on top and become the first team to record two victories in the new season.
After two big wins, their points differential is comfortable (+58), remembering they finished only +21 for all of last season and never ventured above +36.
[h}What’s next
Warriors travel to Newcastle Knights, who took out the 2025 wooden spoon, but have changed coaches in the off-season and won their season-opener against North Queensland Cowboys 28-18 in Vegas.
Kiwis coach and Warriors assistant Stacey Jones will have a chance to discuss Kalyn Ponga’s impending international allegiance switch with the player after the game.
