Mannering to debut as Warriors' captain

Simon Mannering's debut as Warriors captain will coincide with fellow back rower Micheal Luck's 100th appearance for the club in Saturday night's second-round NRL clash against Cronulla at Mount Smart Stadium.

The 23-year-old Mannering's niggling hamstring injury ruled him out of Sunday's season-opening 18-24 loss to Gold Coast in Robina.

"We weren't prepared to gamble with Simon last week and didn't name him at all," coach Ivan Cleary said today.

"But Simon has now finished his rehab work and has come through really well. It's a significant boost for us to have him back to lead the side on Saturday night."

Mannering will become the youngest captain in the club's history when he runs onto Mount Smart Stadium and there with him will be last week's stand-in captain Luck, who will become the 17th member of the Warriors' 100-game club.

Mannering played his 100th game in the final match of the 2009 season and has had Luck as a team-mate for all but a handful of those matches.

"Lucky has given the club tremendous service since starting here in 2006," said Cleary.

"He's the type of player who's often under-appreciated by a lot of people because of the type of job he does but we certainly value his contribution highly."

Luck started with the Warriors after 76 appearances for North Queensland, the majority of them as an interchange forward. He quickly established himself as a starting back rower with his new club, distinguishing himself as one of the NRL's pre-eminent defenders over the last three seasons.

He made more tackles than any other player in the competition in 2007 (959) and 2008 (957) while his 1053 tackles had him top again after the 2009 regular season. However, Parramatta second rower Nathan Hindmarsh (1119) and Bulldogs loose forward David Stagg (1073) pulled ahead in the finals, which Luck missed.

With Mannering returning, Ben Matulino goes to the interchange bench while last weekend's debutant Sione Lousi is out with a lower leg injury. He had a 24-minute stint off the bench against the Titans but was unable to return.

Also back in the squad after missing the Gold Coast trip is fullback Wade McKinnon. He was named on the bench for the game against the Titans before being forced to withdraw with an infection. He has again been listed on a five-man bench for the Cronulla match.

Cronulla began their season with a 10-14 loss to Melbourne last Saturday night.

The team is: Lance Hohaia, Kevin Locke, Brent Tate, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei, James Maloney,

Brett Seymour, Sam Rapira, Aaron Heremaia, Russell Packer, Lewis Brown, Simon Mannering (captain), Micheal Luck. Interchange: Wade McKinnon, Jeremy latimore, Jesse Royal, Beb Matulino, Joel Moon.

- NZPA