League: Warriors must avoid first-up loss at all costs

Desperation is a word much over-used in the context of sport but tomorrow the Warriors truly need to show real hunger because an opening-round loss to the Melbourne Storm would be disastrous.

Given the way they have struggled to regroup after poor starts and considering they start this season four points behind the pack, a confidence-dasher at home in round one could have a calamitous impact.

A concern has to be their tendency to start slowly in their trial games.

They let Canberra take a 22-0 lead before finishing strongly for 28-16. Against the Cowboys they were 20-0 down and finished 26-10. In their last pre-season outing they gave the Bulldogs a 20-6 head-start at half-time before holding them scoreless through the second period for a 24-20 result.

So to counter the slow start a strong finish is required and it's always nice to hit top gear at the end. The trouble is, other teams take confidence from the early lead and the Warriors make things hard for themselves.

Quite simply, they have the experience in key positions to suggest they should control the Storm. The visitors have a spectacular backline but up front they have rookie props against two of the best in the business.

Steve Price, 32, has 238 premiership games behind him and Ruben Wiki, 33, has 244. The Storm have new recruit Garret Crossman, 23, who played 24 games for Penrith, and Antonio Kaufusi, 21, who has had 18 games mainly off the bench.

If the Warriors pair deliver in their usual fashion, the home team has a huge head start. Behind the packs are two new halfbacks in Nathan Fien, 26, 113 games, and Cooper Cronk, 22, 33 games. Again, experience should tell.

But the Storm have some hard-heads in captain David Kidwell in the second row and Scott Hill at five-eighth to calm things. If their backline does get on a roll and the Warriors have to start playing catch-up, it will not be a good start to their year.

The Warriors must make the most of a run of early home games, including those against the Eels in Hamilton and Wests Tigers in Christchurch, though they have yet to win in New Zealand other than at Ericsson.

The players and management have made much of the determination to win despite the points disadvantage.

They are treating it as if they have no byes - the 15-team competition awards all sides four points for their two byes.

The calm approach of coach Ivan Cleary has been a plus.

Fact is, if they are good enough they will make the playoffs anyway. If they can do that, the knockers will be reluctant to bet against them in the knock-out matches. Much will depend on the new halves pairing of Fien and Sione Faumuina.

The latter has the bulk and power to break defensive lines, to get his hands free and off-load. He's strong in defence. He now has to prove he has the smarts to run play.

As the Warriors must recover from the loss of their play-maker in Stacey Jones, so the Storm face a change with Cronk replacing Matt Orford.

Storm recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan said mid-week that Cronk was more of a team player than Orford who, despite his on-field brilliance, could not produce the team-oriented style needed for the club to be a premiership contender.

O'Sullivan predicted the change at halfback would produce a style that the Storm had been trying, but failing, to produce for several years.

Orford had a tendency to "play the way Ox [Orford] wanted to play, rather than for the betterment of the team", he said.

The Storm are backing athleticism over size and clearly hope Cronk will run off the forwards as they try to create links to their classy backs. The club this week extended Cronk's contract to 2009.

* The Warriors will take no further action over their penalty for salary cap breaches after the NRL's decision yesterday not to amend the penalty after considering the club's submissions challenging the severity of the original points deduction.

* NZ Warriors v Storm, Ericsson Stadium, 2pm tomorrow

NZ Warriors
Brent Webb, Tony Martin, Jerome Ropati, Clinton Toopi, Manu Vatuvei, Sione Faumuina, Nathan Fien, Ruben Wiki, Lance Hohaia, Steve Price (c), Awen Guttenbiel, Wairangi Koopu, Louis Anderson.
Interchange: Grant Rovelli, Michael Luck, Epalahame Lauaki, Evarn Tuimavave, Todd Byrne 18th man.

Storm
Billy Slater, Matt Geyer,  Matt King, Greg Inglis, Jake Webster, Scott Hill, Cooper Cronk, Garrett Crossman, Cameron Smith, Antonio Kaufusi, David Kidwell (c), Dallas Johnson.
Interchange: Brett White, Ryan Hoffman, Ian Donnelly, Steve Turner, Jamie Feeney.

The game file

Last four meetings
* August 2005 Storm won 22-10 in Melbourne

* June 2005 Warriors won 24-16 in Auckland

* June 2004 Storm won 42-6 in Melbourne

* May 2004 Warriors won 20-14 in Auckland.

In pre-season
* Melbourne Storm: Beat the Parramatta Eels 38-18 and the Brisbane Broncos 58-10.

* NZ Warriors:Lost to the Canberra Raiders 28-16 and to the North Queensland Cowboys 26-10, beat the Canterbury Bulldogs 24-20.

Key players
NZ Warriors
* Prop Steve Price (right), age 32, 238 premiership games

* Prop Ruben Wiki, 33, 244 games

* Halfback Nathan Fien, 26, 113 games.

 Melbourne Storm
* Prop Garret Crossman, age 23, 24 premiership games

* Prop Antonio Kaufusi, 21, 18 games

* Halfback Cooper Cronk, 22, 33 games