Warriors dealt huge blow as key man ruled out for weeks

New Zealand Warriors are well in the hunt for the minor premiership after a memorable win over the Panthers in Auckland on Friday night.

Luke Metcalf starred with two tries, and 16 points in total, as the Wahs dominated Penrith at Go Media Stadium, eventually prevailing 28-12 after a late scare.

Metcalf’s player of the match performance raised some eyebrows, as the playmaker came from the cold to play only his third game of the season.

That’s because it was confirmed in the week that Te Maire Martin, who has been excelling in the halfback role, had suffered a hamstring injury in training.

Martin has been partnering Chanel Harris-Tavita in the halves ever since Tanah Boyd suffered a season-ending ACL injury back in May.

Speaking in his post-match press conference after the Warriors defeated the premiership favourites, head coach Andrew Webster revealed all on Martin’s injury.

“It will be 2-4 weeks out for Te Maire,” confirmed Webster. “It was late and unfortunate for Te Maire, but Luke has strung some really good footy together in the last 5-6 weeks.

“At training our defence has been getting to defend Luke, which has been awesome, but I’m just rapt with all our halves.

“From Tanah Boyd to Chanel to Te Maire to Luke, we’ve got some real quality ones. We even have Jett Cleary and Luke Hansen in our reserve grade too.

“We get to face really good stuff at training each week and you pick any of them with confidence.”

The Warriors will now field Harris-Tavita and Metcalf in the halves over the coming weeks, starting next Saturday when they visit the Brisbane Broncos.

It will be chance for Dragons-bound Metcalf to nail down the halfback role before Martin’s return, and another top performance at Suncorp would go a long way to achieving that.