Saturday first NRL Round 26 match 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 which see’s away team New Zealand Warriors hold favouritism in the market. 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.

Warriors eye Dragons win for NRL finals

The Warriors want to underscore their fine recovery over the second half of the NRL season with victory over St George Illawarra on Saturday.

Then it’s a case of seeing whether the cards somehow fall their way over the remainder of the weekend.

Skipper Simon Mannering and his men go into the final round in 10th place, the lowest of four teams vying for the two remaining playoff spots.

They have the advantage of being the first in action, which means they will still have everything to play for at kick-off.

But they need to win, and then hope that two out of Newcastle, North Queensland and Gold Coast slip up.

For coach Matthew Elliott, the scenarios are simple: “We win and we don’t make it, we lose, or we win and do make it.”

But he said the challenge for the Warriors was to avoid being distracted by the permutations.

“We have to go away and perform well,” he said.

“We’ve got other things to lever up against.”

Those other things included being the first Warriors side to win in Wollongong since the merged St George Illawarra entered the competition in 1999.

The previous nine visits all ended in defeat.

Victory would also mean finishing the season with a 12-12 win-loss record, which sounded much better than 11-13.

As well, they wanted to continue their big comeback from a poor start to their campaign, when they were near the foot of the table at the mid-point.

“In the second 12 rounds, we’re sitting fourth,” Elliott said.

“I think that starts to set the mindset of what this team is capable of doing.”

Elliott said veteran Jerome Ropati, who picked up a hamstring injury in the 50-16 win over Canberra last weekend, would travel with the squad, but was “probably unlikely” to be available.

The prospects were more positive for fellow centre Dane Nielsen, who was sidelined against the Raiders with shin and ankle problems.