League: Warriors shuffle players for Roosters rendezvous

A recovered Brent Webb has helped to energise the Warriors. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Warriors coach Tony Kemp doesn't see the raft of positional changes within the team to face the Roosters tomorrow as an experiment.

New hooker Lance Hohaia likes to get his hands on the ball and be close to the action, Sione Faumuina has played five-eighth at test level, and Jerome Ropati has all the skills to play at centre, Kemp said in the run-down to the game at Ericsson Stadium.

The team had trained aggressively and well yesterday, helped by having Brent Webb and Stacey Jones take a full part after previously being restrained by injury.

Hohaia had the opportunity to make the No 9 jersey his, Kemp said. When Nathan Fien came back from his eye-socket injury, he would fill in in the halves.

"Danny Buderus and Luke Priddis started there [at halfback] and I think Lance will have no trouble. He feels he is a No 7 and he likes to be closer to the action [than five-eighth, where he has been playing].

"He offers some vision and a natural kicking game."

Kemp said he had some knowledge of the Roosters' approach thanks to assistant coach Ivan Cleary and centre Todd Byrne.

In recent years the Roosters have had the measure of the Warriors, particularly in those games that count.

The Sydneysiders won 44-0 in the lead-up to the 2002 grand final and 30-8 in the last game. A 58-6 hiding in 2004 brought Daniel Anderson's demise.

In 2003, the Warriors won 26-24, without an injured Jones. At the time the Roosters were still enjoying the dominant game-running provided by Brad Fittler.

This year, the Roosters have struggled. Like the Warriors, they are undergoing several changes in the halves as they seek a five-eighth and as injury bites.

Their Fittler replacement, Brett Firman, has been out with a shin injury and was due to return in this round. The club said yesterday he would start in premier league.

Twenty-year-old Jamie Soward made his debut in the halves last week against Newcastle and performed well, but his father, Peter, died on Sunday night. Soward will travel to Auckland today.

The Roosters have made much of an image of Awen Guttenbeil standing over a concussed Ned Catic in their 30-24 win over the Warriors in round 25 last season.

After the game, Roosters coach Ricky Stuart apparently blasted his troops for failing to stand up for a fallen mate, spawning a new hard-line approach.

It was not something brought up in the build-up to the game this weekend, but it hasn't been forgotten.

Kangaroos second-rower Craig Fitzgibbon is quoted on the Roosters' website: "We all had a good talk and said we wouldn't let anyone stand over our mates anymore."

The Roosters have Michael Crocker and Chris Flannery in the Queensland State of Origin squad and Anthony Minichiello, Craig Wing, Anthony Tupou, and Fitzgibbon in the NSW squad of 30.