drought-breaking win over Melbourne Storm<\/a> last week, NZ Warriors star Chanel Harris-Tavita broke away from the celebrations to visit the opposition locker room.<\/p>\nAmid the defensive carnage inflicted on the shellshocked Storm during a dominant second half, the five-eighth had drilled front-rower Josh King into the AAMI Stadium turf, spilling the ball loose and sparking a confrontation between the two teams.<\/p>\n
For the first time in more than a decade, the Warriors were able to point to the scoreboard, which read 38-14, and remind their rivals there was no way back for them.<\/p>\n
“In the heat of battle, you’re going to do whatever to help your team,” Harris-Tavita chuckled. “I was lucky all the boys had my back there or I don’t know what would have happened.”<\/p>\n
King wasn’t the only one to feel Harris-Tavita’s sting, but he soon learnt that act of brutality was not personal.<\/p>\n
“After the game, I went and seen him, and we shook each other’s hands. What happens on the field stays on the field.<\/p>\n
“He was sweet, he’s a legend.”<\/p>\n
Clearly, Harris-Tavita cherishes that physicality. As he addressed the Warriors’ weekly media gaggle, he sported the beginnings of a juicy black eye, apparently the work of veteran second-rower Kurt Capewell on the training field.<\/p>\n
“He got me a beauty,” he grinned.<\/p>\n
Most halves are not renowned for their defence – that’s the point of difference Harris-Tavita brings to the Warriors.<\/p>\n
“I don’t focus on putting big hits on, but I try to be physical with my defence and that sets up my attack,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“I feel like there’s a few boys in the team that are like that as well. If they get their first contact and focus on their defence first, their attack flows off that.”<\/p>\n
It seems no co-incidence these were the qualities that went missing from the Warriors during their back-to-back defeats against Wests Tigers and Cronulla Sharks, when Harris-Tavita was missing from the line-up.<\/p>\n
After launching the season with two tries against Sydney Roosters, he was concussed early against Canberra Raiders and had to sit out a third victory over Newcastle Knights, before losing his spot outright with the return of Luke Metcalf from a lengthy knee injury.<\/p>\n
Suddenly spoilt for choice in the position, coach Andrew Webster opted for the in-form Tanah Boyd and attacking potential of Metcalf, but perhaps sacrificed the intangible aspects of Harris-Tavita’s well-rounded skillset in the process.<\/p>\n
After accepting two try assists from Roger Tuivasa-Sheck for his opening-round double, CHT returned the favour against the Storm, cleverly delaying his final pass for Tuivasa-Sheck to score his first of the season, before placing a pinpoint leftfoot kick that yielded a try for wing Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.<\/p>\n
“I thought he was one of our best players,” Webster admitted. “Chanel was awesome.<\/p>\n
“His defence and the way he competed was extraordinary. He hadn’t played since his concussion, so I was really happy for him.<\/p>\n
“We got a lot of energy from him, which was great.”<\/p>\n
His performance has persuaded many that Harris-Tavita should retain the Warriors No.6 jersey fulltime, leaving Boyd and Metcalf to contest the halfback spot. That competition is a nice problem for Webster to have, with veteran Te Maire Martin, newly anointed debutant Luke Hanson and heir apparent Jett Cleary also waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n
Metcalf led the Dally M Medal standings, when he suffered his season-ending injury last June, while Boyd has filled in admirably, strengthening his own case by leading the NRL in try assists and kicking metres through six rounds.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think anyone has a right to a jersey,” Harris-Tavita insisted. “I think I have a right to put my hand up and play my best footy.<\/p>\n
“The more games I play consistently, the better I’ll get – that’s all I’m focused on.”<\/p>\n
Harris-Tavita is two games away from bringing up his century for the Auckland club, a tenure that began in 2019, but included a year off, when he travelled the world finding himself.<\/p>\n
His contract ends this season and, given his current contribution to the cause, an extension should become a priority for the Warriors.<\/p>\n
“I just need to keep playing my best footy – and I think that’s still ahead of me – and let the agent take care of everything else,” he deflected.<\/p>\n
“The attractive thing about our club is we all get along as a crew. From 1-36 in our squad, we can all talk to each other and feel comfortable challenging each other to get better.<\/p>\n
“It is attractive being part of this club and what we’re building.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chanel Harris-Tavita (right) and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck have formed a profitable partnership in the Warriors backline. Photo: Andrew Cornaga\/Photosport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,1590,63,1589,761,762,44,158,1591,1588,1586,1587,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-611349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-audio","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-current-affairs","12":"tag-national-rugby-league","13":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nrl","16":"tag-podcasts","17":"tag-public-radio","18":"tag-radio-new-zealand","19":"tag-rnz","20":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Chanel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JS6CUJ_260306WarriorsRoostersNRL_073_JPG.jpeg\")
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