A blockbuster Friday night home game against the Sydney Roosters will launch the One New Zealand Warriors\u2019 2026 NRL season.<\/p>\n
Revealed today ahead of the full draw set to be announced later this week, the Warriors will host the Roosters at Go Media Stadium on Friday, March 6 (8.00pm kickoff).<\/p>\n
Igniting the Warriors\u2019 32nd season in the competition, the glamour tie will be the 49th encounter between the rivals.<\/p>\n
Both clubs made the playoffs this season, the Warriors finishing sixth before being eliminated by Penrith in week one of the finals while the eighth-placed Roosters were knocked out by Cronulla Sutherland.<\/p>\n
In the only battle between the sides this year, the One New Zealand Warriors prevailed 14-6 to break a run of eight straight losses to the Roosters leaving the overall record at 23 wins to the Warriors, 24 to the Roosters with one match drawn.<\/p>\n
The match is set to coincide with legendary halfback Daly Cherry-Evans making his debut for the Roosters after ending his 15-season, 352-game career with Manly Warringah.\u00a0Also in line for his Roosters debut will be New South Wales Origin hooker Reece Robson, who has been signed from North Queensland.<\/p>\n
The Roosters’ 2026 squad boasts outstanding Kiwi middle forward Naufahu Whyte as well as three members of the Kangaroos’ squad which has just swept England 3-0 in the Ashes series – winger Mark Nawaqanitawase, second rower Angus Crichton and prop Lindsay Collins.<\/p>\n
The first round of the season starts in Las Vegas on February 28 with the Bulldogs taking on the Dragons and the Knights facing the Cowboys.<\/p>\n
2026 NRL Draw | Round 1<\/p>\n
Thursday, March 5 | Storm v Eels, AAMI Park
Friday, March 6 | One New Zealand Warriors v Roosters, Go Media Stadium
Friday, March 6 | Broncos v Panthers, Suncorp Stadium
Saturday, March 7 | Sharks v Titans, Sharks Stadium
Saturday, March 7 | Sea Eagles v Raiders, 4Pines Stadium
Sunday, March 8 | Dolphins vs Rabbitohs, Suncorp Stadium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A blockbuster Friday night home game against the Sydney Roosters will launch the One New Zealand Warriors\u2019 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-131386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}