Mounties v New Zealand Warriors on Sunday at 2:00pm at Leichhardt Oval
Mounties Coach Stephen Antonelli has named his side for the clash with the New Zealand Warriors in week one of the VB NSW Cup finals series.
Due to a painfully narrow points differential (just three points seperated Illawarra from Mounties), Mounties finished just outside the top four in fifth position whilst the Warriors scraped in at 8th position on the ladder.
As such, the loser of this contest will be eliminated from the finals series.
Mounties will be well led by Terry Campese at five-eighth whilst they will also have plenty of strike out wide through the experienced Reece Robinson and the competition's leading try scorer in Sami Sauiluma as well as grunt up front through Kyle O'Donnell and Jake Foster.
Mounties will head into the match in a confident frame of mind after comprehensively defeating the Warriors in both of their fixtures this year.
In Round 9 Mounties triumphed 42-22 and in Round 21 they thrashed New Zealand 42-4.
Sauiluma will no doubt be a heavily marked man by the Warriors given that he scored a total of six tries in their previous two encounters.
For the Warriors, Mounties will need to keep an eye on the talented halves pairing of Chad Townsend and Carlos Tuimavave. If their massive forward pack gets on a roll, these two playmakers will be hard to stop.
There will be a triple header of semi-finals played at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday:
- Illawarra Cutters v Penrith Panthers at 12:00pm
- Mounties v New Zealand Warriors at 2:00pm
- Wests Tigers v Wyong Roos at 4:00pm
Mounties full team line-up is:
1. Jack Ahearn
2. Reece Robinson
3. Mosese Pangai
4. Sami Sauiluma
5. Wayne Dargan
6. Terry Campese
7. Ryan Carr.
8. Mitch Cahalane
9. Reece Goldsmith
10. Kyle O'Donnell
11. Jake Foster
12. Fred Pakutoa
13. Clay Priest
14. Rodney Coates
15. Adam Tangata
16. Mitch Beggs
17. Tevita Pangai Junior
18. Shane Shackleton
