KEY POINTS:
Nathan Fien will look to stick to the basics when he switches pivotal positions for the New Zealand Warriors' National Rugby League (NRL) trip to Newcastle this weekend.
Used mainly as a hooker in recent times, Fien will revert to five-eighth, a slot he hasn't filled for a
while.
"The last time was in 2005, outside Stacey Jones," he remembers.
"It's been a few years, but I'm looking forward to it."
While the roles were different, both hooker and five-eighth involved plenty of organising, Fien said.
The transition would not be too difficult from that respect and, in his dummy half role, he had already worked closely with halfback Grant Rovelli.
However, he would need to do more tactical kicking and provide quality ball for the outside backs.
"I've got the job this week and I don't want to over-complicate things," he said.
"I just want to go out there and do my job in the side the best I can. Hopefully that can lead to the win."
In his preparations to face the Knights on Saturday night, he has been working on his kicking game under the eye of Jones, who is now the Warriors' kicking coach.
Fien has been handed the No 6 jersey with regular five-eighth Michael Witt still sidelined by a hip injury suffered when he duffed a kick in the wet against Canberra four weeks ago.
The Warriors have lost their two matches since that win over the Raiders to drop to third bottom on the table, two points behind the Knights, who are ninth.
Without a victory on the road this season, they were beaten at home for the first time last Sunday, falling to the Sydney Roosters, who climbed to the top of the table of the back of the 38-12 result.
Fien said the Roosters had shown the Warriors the importance of having the right attitude.
"They competed for every little ball on the ground, every little tackle," he said.
"They taught us a good lesson that every individual play throughout the match is a battle and you have to try to win as many of those little battles as you can."
Another area the Warriors would need improvement on was in defence.
They have had more points scored against them - 310 in 10 matches - than any other side in the competition.
"Our defence has to smarten up," Fien said, "and that comes back to attitude and individuals as well."
He said the mood in the Warrior camp remained upbeat despite their position on the table.
"We're not desperate at the moment," he said.
"But we need the win to keep in touch with the top eight, because that's what we feel we are. We're a top-eight side and we've got to start winning these games."
He also noted that the regular season not yet at the halfway stage, so there was still plenty of time for the Warriors to get their campaign back on track.
"Having said that, we're not in the position we want to be at this stage of the year," Fien said.
"We've got only ourselves to blame and we just have to move on now and try to correct the mistakes we've made."
- NZPA
