League: Teams lose captains to Origin duty

The Tigers and the Warriors are without their skippers when they play at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday.

Both are on State of Origin duty, Brett Hodgson the New South Wales fullback and Steve Price with the Queensland squad.

It's likely the loss of Price will hurt the home team more than Hodgson's absence handicaps the visitors.

Evarn Tuimavave starts at prop and Huntly-bred Sam Rapira, 19, gets a first run from the bench. Manu Vatuvei holds a wing spot and pushes Todd Byrne out of the team. Kiwi centre Clinton Toopi is also dropped.

Coach Ivan Cleary said they always knew Price would be gone for the Origin games and Rapira deserved a chance.

"He has worked hard with the first-grade squad and he has also been impressive for Waicoa Bay in the Bartercard Cup.

"Clinton isn't giving us what we expect of him at the moment. He needs to regroup and hopefully he'll come back into contention again very soon. There's no question about his ability. We just need some consistency from him."

Rapira is the Warriors' 131st first-grader and the club's sixth new player and fourth debutant this year after Micheal Luck and George Gatis who debuted with the Cowboys, and Patrick Ah Van, Misi Taulapapa and Grant Rovelli.

The Tigers are starting Kiwi Benji Marshall at five-eighth and shift Jamaal Lolesi to lock, but other than Hodgson's absence and replacement by 19-year-old Shannon McDonnell it is the same team that was just beaten by Newcastle last weekend.

They have joint captains in half Scott Prince and prop Todd Payten.

* The outgoing Parramatta coach Brian Smith estimated the Eels needed 10 wins from the 15 games remaining if they were to make the playoffs.

The Warriors are in a similar boat.

They have eight away games and seven to come at home after this one but desperately need to win on Saturday night in order to maintain some semblance of credibility and to ensure someone wants to watch the rest.

* Former Warriors five-eighth Cliff Beverley who has spent three years at Salford has returned to Auckland and is training with the Waitakere Rangers.

* Warriors v Tigers, Mt Smart Stadium, Saturday 7.30pm

Warriors

Brent Webb
Manu Vatuvei
Tony Martin
Simon Mannering
Misi Taulapapa
Jerome Ropati
Grant Rovelli
Ruben Wiki (c)
Nathan Fien
Evarn Tuimavave
Awen Guttenbeil
Wairangi Koopu
Sione Faumuina

Reserves: George Gatis, Sam Rapira, Louis Anderson, Micheal Luck.

Tigers

S. McDonnell
Daniel Fitzhenry
Dean Collis
Paul Whatuira
Shane Elford
Benji Marshall
Scott Prince (c)
Todd Payten (c)
Robbie Farah
John Skandalis
Bryce Gibbs
Anthony Laffranchi
Jamaal Lolesi

Reserves: Chris Heighington, Dene Halatau, Keith Galloway, Ryan O'Hara.