NRL: Late Knights for Warriors' fans

Former Knights prop Jesse Royal will front up against his old club this week at Mt Smart. Photo / Getty Images

The Warriors desperately need a win over Newcastle at Mt Smart on Friday night to keep their playoff hopes alive but the kick-off time of 8.30pm will do them no favours.

The match time will suit Aussie television but not Warriors' fans in mid-winter.

Coach Ivan Cleary has made several changes though most are injury-related apart from the return of hooker Ian Henderson who missed two games due to the death of his father Martin.

Cleary said other shuffling was in a bid to inject enthusiasm and so get a faster start instead of letting in early tries as has too often been the case.

"There's no question we are doing a lot of things well but we again had an issue against Cronulla with our start and with our energy levels in the opening part of the match."

Joel Moon sits out the match due to concussion and Lance Hohaia goes to five-eighth to resurrect the halves partnership he had with Stacey Jones when the club was successful under Daniel Anderson.

Jones plays his 250th game for the Warriors and is the first player to reach that mark after appearing 238 times between 1995 and 2005 before he headed to France.

They stick with the new sensation Kevin Locke on the wing and Patrick Ah Van returns at right centre after a hamstring injury, Simon Mannering on the left, Jerome Ropati left out and recovering from an ankle problem.

Ben Matulino and Lewis Brown start in a new second row combination, Aaron Heremaia who started as hooker during Henderson's absence goes to the bench and Jesse Royal returns after missing the loss to the Sharks.

The skippers of both teams were among those sitting at home yesterday in an NRL-ordered quarantine of all State of Origin players after a swine flu scare surrounding Queensland prop Ben Hannant. Neither Steve Price nor the Warriors and Blues trainer Craig Walker, nor the Knights' Kurt Gidley and James McManus showed any sign of flu and the isolation was precautionary.

Knights half Scott Dureau is out for a month after tearing a groin muscle and is replaced by Ben Rogers but otherwise they will bring the team that slipped narrowly to Parramatta.

Warriors
Wade McKinnon, Kevin Locke, Patrick Ah Van, Simon Mannering, Manu Vatuvei, Lance Hohaia, Stacey Jones, Sam Rapira, Ian Henderson, Steve Price (c), Lewis Brown, Ben Matulino, Michael Luck.

Interchange: Aaron Heremaia, Russell Packer, Jesse Royal, Jacob Lillyman.

Knights
Kurt Gidley (c), James McManus, Junior Sau, Wes Naiqama, Akulia Uate, Ben Rogers, Jarrod Mullen, Mark Taufua, Isaac DeGois, Chris Houston, Steve Simpson, Zeb Taia, Matt Hilder. Interchange: Con Mika, Danny Wicks, Sione Tovo, Keith Lulia, Richie Fa'aoso, Marvin Karawana (two to be omitted).

Referees: Steve Lyons, Bernard Sutton.