New recruit Gayle Broughton wasted just 20 minutes of her NZ Warriors debut before stamping her authority on proceedings.
Her team had bumbled and fumbled their way through the opening exchanges against Canterbury Bulldogs, committing five penalties – four of them for dangerous tackles – and two errors, before losing front-rower Mya Hill-Moana to the bin for a hipdrop.
“In all honesty, as a half, I was just annoyed,” Broughton admitted. “I was genuinely just annoyed.
“We probably didn’t give the Bulldogs enough respect in the starting 20 and really let them steamroll us. We went down a player and that added more pressure, but as a half, I live for those moments.
“I live for those moments to see holes, to see gaps in the defence to back my skill set and have a crack.”
Only a few metres out, as the Warriors shifted left, Broughton dummied and brushed off an ineffectual tackle to open the Warriors scoring for their 2026 NRLW campaign, slamming the ball down on the FMG Stadium turf, as if to tell her teammates, ‘That’s how you do it’.
“I didn’t think we were playing to our standard as a team. All week, we had been talking about our intentions for defence, but mostly attack, and I’m not too happy when we don’t live up to those standards.
“Sometimes, you’ve just got to tell people to hold my coffee and show them the way – in the most humblest way.”
Before halftime, Broughton threw a long pass that put centre Emmanita Paki over for another try down the left edge for a 10-0 lead at the break, but the Warriors really broke the game open after the restart, piling on three tries in six minutes to show their true capabilities.
She provided another try assist, as wing Lavinia Tauhalaliku brought up her double and the Warriors cruised to a 32-10 victory.
When coach Ron Griffiths recruited Broughton, along with centre Mele Hufanga and front-rower Netta Nuuausala, from the champion Brisbane Broncos, this was exactly what he had hoped for.
“The game was probably on a knife’s edge, going backwards and forwards, and trading set for set,” he reflected. “For us, we were ill disciplined, and it just took someone to go down there and steady the ship, and probably find their superpower.
“For Gayle, that’s seeing the space and running – she got us into some rhythm after that.
“When we need players to identify their strength or their thread, she’s able to identify when it’s required. With the game going from side to side and we weren’t going through them, she understood we needed someone to grab hold of it and she did that.”
Broughton probably had that skill from her vast experience with the Black Ferns Sevens programme, culminating in Olympic gold at Tokyo 2021, but it was undoubtedly honed for league by her three years with the Broncos, alongside some of the best in the code.
Emmanita Paki picked up a try double against Canterbury Bulldogs.
DJ Mills/Photosport
One of the advantages of shifting out of the shadow of those greats was the ability to gather valuable Dally M Medal points. Broughton was one of five players to gather maximum points in the NRLW’s opening round, along with fellow Kiwi Raecene McGregor of Wests Tigers.
Broughton’s presence also helped unlock two other key members of the Warriors backline – Paki and fullback Apii Nicholls.
Paki also had a try double and assisted on Tauhalaliku’s first try, while Nicholls popped up all over the field, running from dummy half, and assisting on tries to Paki and Tysha Ikenasio.
Before the season, Griffiths was confident he had the competition’s best defensive fullback, but wanted Nicholls to become more involved on attack, even playing her in the halves at times in training.
“We’ve got a really nice plan, we believe, with our six, seven and one, and how that looks,” he said. “Further to that, someone like Apii, her whole career has been spent playing at fullback, playing second layer.
“We started working on a plan at the back end of last year and to see some of it come to fruition so early in the year was great.
“We believe that will really free up Gayle and Patricia Maliepo at different times. We’ve still got a bit of work to do with her and she’ll certainly keep growing into that role throughout the year… very pleasing.”