Loanee happy to help out the Warriors
Warriors loanee Poasa Faamausili is open to extending his stay with the New Zealand NRL club after making a surprise in-season switch from the Roosters.
The Auckland born-and-raised prop made his Warriors debut in Friday night’s heavy loss to the Panthers, shortly after joining the injury-hit team on a fourweek loan deal.
Although he was disappointed with the result, the Warriors kept scoreless in a 26-0 drubbing, Faamausili said he was grateful for the opportunity to play some decent minutes after sitting idle at the Roosters.
He carved off six runs for 64 metres and made 27 tackles in 33 minutes on the field.
‘‘If everything goes to plan, everyone at the Roosters is well and no-one is injured, and everything here is going well as well, then I’ll be open to extending it,’’ he said.
‘‘But to be honest I had never heard of it before until I was approached that there was a loan option to come here. I’m a fan of it, especially if you can’t get games at your primary club and there’s other clubs looking for certain players. I think it’s a really good initiative.
‘‘There’s a chance to impress your coach from your primary club but there’s also that other aspect of proving yourself in the NRL.’’
Following the cancellation of the New South Wales Cup, Faamausili said the move to the Warriors will allow him to get regular game time at a period where he was struggling to break into the Roosters’ match-day squad and unable to play reserve grade.
‘‘Trent Robinson pulled me aside after training and said there was an opportunity to come here and play some games, and there was no way I was going to turn that down.
‘‘With the NSW Cup cancelled I thought it was a real opportunity to come here, play my game and play my style and help the team.
‘‘It’s pretty similar, the training and the way they go about their things here. It’s really good.’’
Faamausili said it was a special moment in his career to make his debut for the Warriors, particularly after being overlooked by the club as a youngster growing up in Auckland.
The 24-year-old has spent the past two seasons with the Roosters and is contracted through to 2022.
‘‘I was a Warriors fan. I used to be a massive fan of Ruben Wiki and one of the centres, [Jerome] Ropati. Growing up I was a massive fan and putting on these colours was a real special honour.
‘‘The Warriors are the only New Zealand team and obviously
I can relate to the Warriors because that’s where I grew up, that’s where my hometown is and there’s that pride in wearing the jersey.’’
Faamausili was given 33 minutes off the bench on Friday night and said it was ‘‘good to get the lungs going again’’ after a couple of months off due to Covid19.
After being kept scoreless, the Warriors will be desperate to bounce back when they play the Cowboys at Central Coast Stadium this Friday night.
‘‘It’s been a good transition, there’s a lot of similarities here, obviously on the weekend we couldn’t get that win but that’s the beauty of the game, we’ve got another week and we’ll definitely be taking our lessons from Friday night.’’