The BetDeluxe NRL Game of the Round is upon us.
This week it’s the clash between the New Zealand Warriors and the Newcastle Knights as the pair seek to continue their winning start to the season.
Head to head, first try scorer and total points scored previews are all here!
head to head
march 19th 6:00pm
The New Zealand Warriors scored an upset victory over the Gold Coast Titans to open its season in the best possible fashion.
A 19-6 triumph at its home away from home in Gosford put aside any issues the Warriors may have faced having to travel, quarantine and settle into life within Australian borders for a prolonged period of time.
Meanwhile, the Newcastle Knights registered a comfortable 32-16 victory over the lesser fancied Canterbury Bulldogs last Friday.
The Knight scored five tries in the 16-point win and that was accompanied by seven line breaks and 30 tackle breaks.
Despite the good form shown by the Knights, it’s most recent outing against The Warriors would leave them some cause for concern.
The Warriors well and truly got the better of the Knights back in August 2020 with a rampant 28-point second-half display helping them to a commanding 36-6 win at Scully Park.
However, with a new year brings new hopes, and Adam O’Brien’s men come into this game unchanged and in good form.
Warriors centre Euan Aitken will miss the game after he injured his ankle in the round one win last week and will be replaced by Adam Pompey.
Two of the key match-ups in this game will be the running threat of Addin Fonua-Blake and David Klemmer, as well as Mitchell Pearce and Kodi Nikorima.
Fonua-Blake and Klemmer have gone face-to-face in the last two years, now the only difference is Fonua-Blake dons a Warriors jersey rather than a Sea-Eagles one.
Both ran for over 200 metres in the first games this year and whoever get the better of this stat will go a long way to determining the outcome of this match.
The kicking games of Pearce and Nikorima will also be of utmost importance with both teams ranking equal third for set completions in 2020.
New Zealand looks the slightly better value at head to head markets as it becomes much
Suggested Bet: New Zealand Warriors head to head at $1.94
first try scorer
maumalo & to'a
New Zealand Warriors second-rower Bailey Sironen scored the first try of the game in the Warriors win over the Titans last week.
He was a massive price to do so in that game and he is $31 to do so again. It was a bit of an anomaly.
Ken Maumalo started one of the favourites against the Gold Coast Titans and he does so again here, while Newcastle winger Starford To’a is an $11 elect to score first try.
The reason to look at the wingers in this game is due to the high set completion rates of both teams.
If Mitchell Pearce and Kodi Nikorima get close to the try line on the fifth tackle, expect them to kick out wide and bring their wingers in catching positions to score.
Suggested Bets:
Ken Maumalo first try scorer at $10
Starford To’a first try scorer at $11
total points scored
unders
The total points scored market comes up at 39.5 for this game.
Both games in 2020 went over and under this set margin with 20 points scored in the March 2020 encounter and 42 points being scored in the August 2020 match.
The Warriors look to have tightened up well in defence during the off-season after only conceding six points in its season opening win over the Gold Coast Titans.
Meanwhile, the Knights offence operated well last week but did concede 16 points in the process against the Bulldogs who are expected to struggle this year.
Think both teams will want to put the feelers out early and neither will go gung-ho early in the match.
The first game last year between the teams was well under the current 39.5 quota and as such, we expect a similar scoring result here.
Suggested Bet: Total points scored under 39.5
