Green in doubt for Warriors
Stephen Kearney wants to give Blake Green every chance of playing on Saturday against the Cowboys, but knows he’s got to make an early call.
The influential Green was a late scratching from last weekend’s game against the Rabbitohs, picking up a groin injury in the warm up.
Green was missing from the Warriors’ training session yesterday, with Chanel Harris-Tavita and Peta Hiku running in the halves. But Kearney says at this stage he hasn’t ruled out Green for the game at Mt Smart Stadium and has named him in the No 7 jersey.
‘‘We’re giving him an opportunity this week, it’ll just depend on how he pulls up over the next couple of days,’’ Kearney said.
The Warriors will train again today, then have tomorrow off and the captain’s run on Good Friday.
‘‘I reckon we’ll get a pretty clear view of it in the next 24 hours,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘The guy who comes in for Greeny needs to be given every opportunity to prepare as best he can this week.’’
In the Warriors’ squad announcement for Saturday, Hiku is named at centre, but Gerard Beale will move into that position from the extended interchange bench if Green is out.
Centre Solomone Kata skipped regular training yesterday, because of a leg injury and did sprints up and down the sidelines instead.
However, he has kept his spot in the team and although Patrick Herbert trained at centre with the top team yesterday, he hasn’t been included in the extended squad of 21.
Despite this, Kearney has been impressed by what he’s seen from Herbert and says he’s pushing for a spot in the NRL team.
‘‘Patrick came here on a train and trial basis,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘He was going to do the pre-season and play a couple of trial games. I thought he did really well during the pre-season, he had a couple of really good trials. Consequently he got a contract with us.’’
If it is Harris-Tavita and Hiku in the halves again, the focus will be on how Harris-Tavita handles the experience in what will be his third NRL game, but Kearney didn’t feel it was a big issue last weekend.
‘‘I didn’t think it was as big a deal as what it could appear, in the sense that he’s got some pretty handy guys around him,’’ Kearney said.
‘‘Tohu Harris helps him really well on the left hand side there.
‘‘Issac [Luke] is a really experienced dummy half there, Roger [Tuivasa-Sheck] at the back. Adam Blair over on the right hand side.
‘‘He’s not out there trying to co-ordinate everyone by himself.
‘‘Peta, even, has played a great deal of NRL football and test match football. I thought he did well under the circumstances. It was good lesson for his development.’’