Saturday has three NRL matches with the first game for Round 25 is between St George Illawarra Dragons and New Zealand Warriors with the opening kick to commence at 3pm local time. The game is to be played at WIN Stadium with the favourite for the match being New Zealand Warriors. View our NRL live scores, odds and results for the game between St George Illawarra Dragons and New Zealand Warriors.
WHERE AND WHEN: WIN Stadium, 3pm (EST) Saturday

Opening odds comparison:

St George Illawarra Dragons	3.50	3.70	N/A	3.70	3.50	N/A
New Zealand Warriors	1.30	1.28	N/A	1.28	1.30	N/A

Preview:

The Dragons take on the Warriors on Saturday, 3.00pm at WIN Stadium. The Warriors will be expected to win here, with the Dragons happily ending what has been a disastrous season. Regardless of the result from this match, St George will finish the season in second-last position, with 6 wins and 17 losses to their name. In contrast, the Warriors can keep their faint finals hopes alive with a win here, although they also have to rely on Melbourne beating the Gold Coast and the Tigers beating the Cowboys in Townsville. While this last result is highly unlikely, the Warriors will probably win here and allow fate to decide their future.

Teams:

St George Illawarra Dragons:
Jason Nightingale, Brett Morris, Chase Stanley, Charly Runciman, Daniel Vidot, Adam Quinlan, Nathan Fien, Jack Stockwell, Mitch Rein, Ben Creagh (c), Tyson Frizell, Leeson Ah Mau, Jack de Belin. Interchange: Matt Prior, Michael Weyman, Bronson Harrison, Josh Drinkwater, Will Matthews (one to be omitted).

New Zealand Warriors:
Kevin Locke, Jerome Ropati, Dane Nielsen, Konrad Hurrell, Manu Vatuvei, Thomas Leuluai, Shaun Johnson, Sam Rapira, Nathan Friend, Suaia Matagi, Elijah Taylor, Simon Mannering, Todd Lowrie. Interchange: Ben Matulino, Jacob Lillyman, Feleti Mateo, Dominique Peyroux, Ngani Laumape, Sio Siua Taukeiaho (two to be omitted).

Referees: Jared Maxwell, Henry Perenara.

Rapira crosses fingers for NRL play-offs

Prop Sam Rapira remains optimistic the stars might still align for the Warriors to sneak into the NRL play-offs.

The odds don’t favour the Auckland-based club, who firstly have to get past St George Illawarra on Saturday.

They then need at least two of the following to happen: Melbourne beating Gold Coast; Wests Tigers, in Benji Marshall’s farewell, downing North Queensland; Parramatta winning against Newcastle.

Two of those three results would be upsets – Wests are 14th on the table and Parramatta are bottom – but the NRL has thrown up some unexpected scorelines this season.

Rapira says all the Warriors can do is beat the Dragons and then watch events unfold.

“Again, last weekend, there were upsets, so it’s possible,” he said.

“Hopefully the Tigers can send Benji out on a high and the Eels can get up too, but we’ll see what happens.”

St George Illawarra are second bottom and are coming off a 26-22 defeat to the Eels.

But they haven’t lost to the Warriors in nine matches in Wollongong since they entered the NRL as a merger in 1999.

Rapira, who brought up his 150th NRL appearance in the 50-16 thumping of Canberra last Saturday, has no idea why the Warriors’ record is so poor at WIN Stadium.

The venue was no different than any other and the travel wasn’t an issue, he said.

The Warriors’ poor start to the season, including losses in the opening three rounds and just two wins in their first 10 matches, put them on the back foot.

But since their club-record 62-6 mauling by Penrith in May, they have rebounded with victory in nine of their last 13.

“If we win this weekend and we’re out of the `comp’, at least you could say we finished on a high,” Rapira said.

“I suppose it’s a learning curve for next year, but fingers crossed we get another game next week.”