Hohaia back from injury for West Tigers match

Lance Hohaia missed the defeat to the Sydney Roosters last weekend with a sternum complaint, but has been named today on a five-man bench for thsi week's match against west Tigers. Photo / Andrew Cornaga

Utility Lance Hohaia has returned from injury to claim a spot in the New Zealand Warriors' squad to play Wests Tigers in a National Rugby League match in Auckland on Sunday.

Hohaia missed the 13-6 away defeat to the Sydney Roosters last weekend with a sternum complaint, but was named today on a five-man bench.

His availability is timely, with regular starting dummy half Aaron Heremaia being ruled out with a hand injury.

Heremaia's absence means Shaun Berrigan will go from the bench to the No 9 jersey in one of two changes to the starting 13.

The other change is the inclusion of prop Jacob Lillyman, who had been named to start against the Roosters but began on the bench in a swap with Ben Matulino.

Lillyman, who played in the opening State of Origin match last month, was today named as Queensland's 18th man for Origin 2 next week, allowing him to turn out for the Warriors this weekend.

An unchanged backline means 20-year-old Shaun Johnson will back up his NRL debut by teaming up again with James Maloney in the halves.

The Tigers will head to Auckland buoyed by their 17-16 golden point win over Newcastle last night, a result that lifted them to seventh in the standings.

They are one place and two points below the Warriors, whom they beat in the round-two meeting between the sides in Sydney in March.

Warrior coach Ivan Cleary said his side would need to improve on their display that night.

"While we didn't get the result we wanted against the Roosters, it was a high quality contest and we did a lot of things well," he said.

"We need to polish up on a few things, though, and we know we'll certainly have to step our performance up a lot from what we produced against the Tigers last time."

At the halfway point of the minor premiership, the Warriors have a 7-5 win-loss record.

Skipper Simon Mannering, Lewis Brown, Micheal Luck, Feleti Mateo and Matulino have played in every match, and will again be in action against the Tigers.

Matulino was voted the players' player of the day against the Roosters after producing 127 metres from 13 runs, five tackle breaks and 27 tackles.

- NZPA