Te Maire Martin will start at halfback for the Warriors when they take on the St George Illawarra Dragons at Jubilee Stadium in Sydney on Saturday, stepping into the role left vacant by Tanah Boyd’s season-ending knee injury and giving the veteran his first proper run in the number seven jersey in two seasons.
The shape of the team for the Round 12 fixture was confirmed on Monday, with kick-off set for 5.30pm Sydney time, 7.30pm in New Zealand. It is only Martin’s third start in two years at the club and arrives at a moment when Andrew Webster’s side, sitting second on the NRL ladder with an 8-2 record and five straight wins, is suddenly very thin on recognised halves.
Boyd, who had grown into the starting halfback role in the early rounds, was helped from the field during the 42-12 win over Brisbane at Magic Round last Sunday. Scans confirmed a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. The club has not yet scheduled surgery but has said the injury will rule him out for the remainder of the 2026 season, ending what had been one of the more promising early-season storylines at Mount Smart.
Martin had come off the bench in that same Brisbane match to play the role he has filled most often since arriving at the club in 2023, an experienced utility happy to slide into whichever spot needs covering. Against the Broncos he scored a try and laid on two more, and his calm reading of the late stages helped the Warriors hold off any Brisbane comeback. RNZ Sport reported that the performance gave him the inside running on the halfback jersey ahead of the trip across the Tasman.
Martin has now played 43 games in Warriors colours since his move from the Brisbane Broncos. Last year he made 17 appearances, almost all of them from the interchange, where his ability to cover halfback, five-eighth and even fullback at a pinch made him one of Webster’s quietly valued squad pieces. The Dragons fixture asks him to do the opposite job, to actually run the team for 80 minutes against an NRL side that has every reason to throw the kitchen sink at the contest.
The other halfback in the conversation, Luke Metcalf, was not named in the playing squad at all. Metcalf agreed earlier this month to leave the Warriors at the end of the season and has signed a three-year deal with the Dragons. He remains contracted in Auckland through to the end of the year and was expected to feature again at some point, but 1News reported Webster has left him out of this particular fixture, an obvious decision given the opposition is his future club.
Webster has made several other changes. Jackson Ford, who impressed off the bench in Brisbane, is promoted to the starting front row alongside captain James Fisher-Harris. Jacob Laban returns to the second row, with Leka Halasima continuing his strong run on the other edge. Eddie Ieremia-Toeava and Luke Hanson have been added to a reshuffled bench, while Erin Clark stays at lock.
Several of the Warriors’ biggest names are absent altogether. Co-captains Mitchell Barnett and Kurt Capewell are away on State of Origin duty after being named in the New South Wales and Queensland squads earlier this week, joining Briton Nikora in the bizarre situation of Kiwi internationals lining up in the interstate showcase. Their absence is one of the reasons Webster has gone with the team he has, leaning on the experience of Fisher-Harris up front and Chanel Harris-Tavita inside at five-eighth, with Martin worn alongside.
The big name in the extended squad is Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, listed at number 23 as he continues his recovery from a shoulder injury. The 2018 Dally M medallist has not played since round seven and his potential return, even if only as a late inclusion or 18th man, will lift Warriors fans hoping to see him back before the bye round. The official Warriors team announcement confirms he is in contention but not yet locked in.
The opposition makes the contest both winnable and dangerous. St George Illawarra arrive at Jubilee Stadium on a 14-game losing streak, easily the longest active run in the competition, and the home crowd will be tense rather than confident. That kind of side can be a trap for a team riding high, especially with a halfback in his first start of the season. Setu Tu, a former Warriors reserve grader who has scored four tries in eight appearances for the Dragons this year, is a familiar face wearing the wrong jersey.
For Martin the night carries a wider significance. He is contracted only to the end of this season and a sustained run at halfback while the Warriors push for a top-four finish would do more for his future than any number of utility cameos. The Warriors play the Dragons, then Penrith, then enjoy a State of Origin period bye, a three-week window in which Webster will decide whether to ride with Martin all the way to the finals or rotate Harris-Tavita and the recovering Tuivasa-Sheck into the spine.
Taine Tuaupiki keeps the fullback jersey, with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and Alofiana Khan-Pereira on the wings and Ali Leiataua and Adam Pompey in the centres. Wayde Egan again starts at hooker.
Saturday’s match is broadcast live on Sky Sport from 7.30pm in New Zealand.
What does Te Maire Martin need to show on Saturday to keep the number seven jersey through the rest of the season? Have your say in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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