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NRL finals, week one: Warriors v Panthers. Where: BlueBet Stadium, Penrith. When: Saturday, 6.05pm (NZT). Coverage: Live on Sky Sport 4, Prime; live updates on Stuff
Wayde Egan didn’t know a lot about Auckland during his first three years as a Warrior.
But in his fourth – the first where he’s been able to actually live in the city the club calls home – the 26-year-old hooker is thriving.
The Lithgow product joined New Zealand’s only NRL club in 2019, moving on from the Penrith Panthers, where the return of Apisai Koroisau had him looking at a third season in a row as an interchange player.
This Saturday he returns to Penrith, where he was once the under-20s captain, for his biggest match yet in a Warriors jersey. It’s a qualifying final that pits him and his fourth-placed team-mates against the minor premiers, who are eyeing a three-peat of titles, something no club has managed since the early 1980s.
Egan lived in Auckland for four months when he first signed across this side of the Tasman, but when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 and the NRL was put on pause, he stayed in Australia, initially with only what he’d packed in a backpack.
It wasn’t until July 2022, when the Warriors played their first proper home match in almost three years, that he returned to New Zealand.
But with the team flying in from their Australian base for that match, and the handful that followed as they finished second-to-bottom last season, it wasn’t until late last year that he moved back for good.
Andrew Cornaga/Photosport
Wayde Egan has had his best season yet for the Warriors, playing a big role in their run to the NRL’s top four.
Ahead of last year’s homecoming fixture, Egan told Stuff he’d had a Warriors staff member gather all the belongings he’d left in Auckland and put them in a storage locker for safekeeping.
“I got the chance in November or December to unpack that,” he said this week. “It was torture. I had to throw out a few things that were a bit mouldy, but it’s been really good moving over properly.
“To actually live here and get amongst the community and have games here – it’s been awesome.
“The weather could be a little bit better sometimes, but other than that, it’s been an awesome year and I’ve really enjoyed my time during my first year living in New Zealand.”
That the Warriors had their most successful season since 2002 – helped no-end by Egan’s play at dummy half – will have only added to his enjoyment, with coach Andrew Webster describing his vice-captain’s growth this year as “unbelievable”.
“He probably gets a lot of credit at the wrong times and what I mean by that is when we get inside [the other team’s] 10 metres, they’ve got to make sure they get their numbers right on both sides of the field, otherwise he’s going to pull you apart.
“If your markers are wrong, if you get it wrong, he’s going to take you on and make a long day for you.
“His leadership, the way he controls it [is great]. I think what he does to defences to stop the inside pressure on our halves, so that the forwards have to honour what he’s actually doing the ball and then when he moves it to our halves, they’re making all the opposition pay. He’s outstanding.”
Egan is yet to taste success against the Panthers with the Warriors, his five matches against them so far all ending in defeat, part of a seven-match losing run they’re on in the matchup stretching back to 2019.
They’ll be up against it to end that streak this weekend, especially without halfback Shaun Johnson, ruled out with calf soreness, but Egan was confident they would give it a good crack.
“They’re the benchmark team of the competition, they have been for three years, and to beat them you’ve got to be on your A-game on both sides of the ball,” he said of the Panthers, who also once had his Warriors team-mates Te Maire Martin and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak on their books.
“We’ll try and prepare really well. They’ve got a lot of strengths across the park and we’ve identified those.
“Hopefully we can nullify some of those and get our game on and put in a good performance on Saturday.”
If the Warriors win, they will have next weekend off before playing a preliminary final at home the following weekend.
If they lose, they will play at home next weekend against the winner of Sunday’s match between the Newcastle Knights and Canberra Raiders.
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