The New Zealand team to compete at this year’s NRL Touch Premiership has been announced, with many familiar faces representing NZ at this year’s competition.
This will be the Vodafone Warriors first time competing in the competition, which was established last year and is the premier national domestic touch football competition in Australia.
The premiership includes a separate men’s and women’s competition and features many elite touch football players from around New Zealand and Australia.
Last year six teams were in the competition- North Queensland Cowboys, Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Titans, Newcastle Knights, Parramatta Eels, and West Tigers- they will be joined by two new teams this year, the Vodafone Warriors and the Sydney Roosters.
The men’s side contains 11 of the 16 Open Men’s players that were recently named in the NZ Open Men’s team to compete at this year’s Touch World Cup. In the women’s side there are 8 Open Women’s team members in the new Warriors team.
There are 26 game days, which will see 16 teams (8 women’s and 8 men’s) from 8 clubs. The teams will play at 12 different stadiums over 5 months. The competition starts on the 6th of April 2019 however the Warriors team have their first match the following month against the Roosters at home at Mt Smart Stadium.
TEAM LISTS:
Women:
Tay-a Antonievic
Savarna Asafo-Tavita
Charlotte Davis
Nicole Drummond
Princess Elliot
Jaymie Kolose
Hayley Lee
Jessica Mahar
Ariia Tainui-McIntyre
Isla Norman-Bell
Victoria Pone
Phoebe Steele
Meg Sycamore
Codie Taute
Dayna Turnbull
Coach: Leana Fox
Men:
Michael Cavanagh
Mita Graham
Ifor Jones
Pokaiaua Kurukaanga
Sean Law
Tiaan McIntyre
Danyon Morgan-Puterangi
Awa Morris
Mase Parsons
Ashton Robinson
Carlos Savage
Matthew Sinclair
Reihana Soutar-Finch
Maurice Stone
Shaquille Stone
Coach: Rahui Das