Captaincy sinks in for new Warriors boss

While Warriors fullback Roger Tuivasa-sheck was named the team’s captain earlier this month, it seems it didn’t sink in until moments before the team’s 30-18 pre-season loss to Melbourne on Saturday.

Tuivasa-sheck, who spent the majority of the 2016 NRL season on the sidelines due to injury, was a surprise captaincy selection by new Warriors coach Stephen Kearney and said he hadn’t really given much thought to his new duties until moments before the match.

‘‘It wasn’t ‘til five minutes before we had to run out I go tipped up ‘hey, um, you’ve got the coin toss at warm up,’ and I’m like holy crap I’ve got to do the coin toss.

‘‘So I talked to Hoffy [excaptain Ryan Hoffman] and said ‘hey what do the boys like to do? Do they like to receive, do they like to kick?’ He tipped me up and said play with the wind first.

‘‘Then running out and leading the boys, that was the moment for me.’’

The Warriors started out strong in their first pre-season match against a youthful Melbourne Storm side who were without stars Billy Slater, Cameron Smith, Jesse Bromwich and Cooper Cronk, scoring 18 early points, before giving up 30 unanswered in 28 degrees Celsius heat on Australia’s Sunshine Coast.

The Warriors opened the scoring with a try from Tuimoala Lolohea, who was playing on the wing. The try was converted by Mason Lino, to give his team a 6-0 lead.

Just before the end of the first quarter Bunty Afoa picked up the Warriors’ second try and Tuivasa-sheck went in soon after the resumption.

From there it was all one-way traffic as the Storm ran in five tries of their own for a resounding win.

‘‘The heat didn’t play too much of a role,’’ Tuivasa-sheck said.

‘‘We just lost a bit of control and Melbourne picked up momentum and they just went on the back of it.’’

Tuivasa-sheck emphasised the importance of playing out the full 80 minutes and would be hoping the side would do just that when they host the Gold Coast Titans in their second preseason trial in Palmerston North next weekend.

‘‘We had an awesome start tonight, we got up 18-0, so it’s just finishing it.

‘‘There were some awesome efforts from the young boys. They’ll be stepping up to challenge some of our senior players.’’