1996

Few New Zealand administrators have helped to change the New Zealand sporting landscape quite as significantly as Peter McLeod did. His sudden death last Wednesday has served to underline the scale of his contribution to not just rugby league – and especially the Vodafone Warriors – but also to...

Worn for only one game during the preseason. The Warriors were all prepared to start playing in the Super League that season but the Australian Rugby League was able to get a court injunction blocking the Super League season from starting. Warriors would have to dump Nike as the official...

For the Warriors 2nd season Lenco would become the official supplier. The Warriors were meant to have been playing in the Super League and have their produced by Nike but a court injunction by the ARL ruled the Super League competition illegal. Warriors then had to find a short term supplier and...

Auckland prop played lower grades with the Roosters in the early 1990s before signing with the newly promoted South Queensland Crushers in the club’s debut season. Young was mainly used from the interchange bench in 1995 but made his Test debut against Papua New Guinea the following year before...

The Ellerslie junior was signed to the Warriors as a development player. He would play 3 games at hooker for the Auckland Warriors in 1996 but wasnt re-signed for the 1997 season. He signed with Whitehaven RLFC after a Super League contract with Wigan fell through. Lester was enticed there by...

Played 22 games for the Auckland Warriors. The Former junior Kiwi played for St Helens in the 44-6 loss to Melbourne in the World Club Challenge in January 2000. Henare later played for Oldham, Leigh and Featherstone Rovers in the second tier Northern Ford premiership in England. 1995 - New...

In 1996 he made his ARL debut for the Auckland Warriors. He was a key part of the 1996 team that made the Reserve Grade Grand Final. He was also named Development Player of the Year. He went on to play 55 games for the Warriors, both from the bench and starting at prop. In 1997, during the Super...

Swann's career started with the Waitakere City Raiders in the 1994 Lion Red Cup, before he signed with the Auckland Warriors, joining there reserve grade side. He made the Warriors' first grade side in 1996 and played 36 times for the club. He was a New Zealand representative in 1996, playing in...

Otahuhu winger/centre played in 3 Tests for NZ in 1993 before coming to Parramatta Eels. Iva Ropati, the brother of Joe and Tea Ropati, had an uneventful career with the Warriors but also played for Featherstone Rovers (1989-90 and 1993-95), Mangere East (NZ, 1990-91), Sheffield Eagles (1991-92)...

A Ellerslie Eagles junior, Murray was picked up by the Warriors after playing for the Auckland City Vulcans. After a horror run of injuries to the Warriors starting fullbacks, Gene Ngamu and Marc Ellis, Doc was selected to make his debut in 1996 against Manly in a game they lost 10-22. He spent...

Auckland backrower represented Tonga in 1995’s World Cup competition before being graded with the Warriors. Guttenbeil was chased by several professional clubs after an Auckland Development Tour of Australia in 1993 and ended up moving to Sydney at the age of 17 to sign for the Manly-Warringah...

Auckland winger/centre, the cousin of Test forward Joe Vagana, played a season with Warrington in 1997 before returning to the Warriors. He was part of the Auckland Warriors Reserve Grade team that lost in the Grand Final to the Cronulla Sharks. In 1999 Vagana (along with captain Matthew Ridge)...

Signed from the Auckland Blues during the Warriors early fascination with signing All Black players. The Mark Carter experiment would largely be a failure and he would be the last All Black straight from Rugby that the club would sign. 1991-98 - New Zealand All Blacks 1996 - Played for...

Auckland back rower, the younger brother of 1985-88 Test forward Shane Horo, played for English Club Salford in 1988-89, before joining P’matta. Mark Horo made his Test debut in the Kiwis’ stunning 13-6 win over Australia in 1987 while still playing in Auckland. He represented NZ in the 1988...

Ellis started playing rugby for Otago before gaining selection for the All Blacks in 1992. A wiry winger (he crossed for 6 tries when NZ beat Japan 145-7 in a 1995 World Cup qualifier. At the end of the 1995 season Ellis switched to league to play for the Auckland Warriors where he joined his...

Great Britain forward, a veteran of 30 Test appearances and a three-times Lions tourist (1990, 1992 and 1996), joined his former Wigan coach John Monie at the newly promoted Auckland Warriors in 1995. Betts, who had played with Wigan since 1986, returned to the club in 1998 until seeing out his...

Otahuhu Leopard centre/ winger with a background in rugby union appeared in 25 Tests for the Kiwis during the 1990s. Blackmore was signed from Castleford Tigers where he had played since 1991. He missed the opening matches with the Warriors after the overlap of the English season. He flew in on...

Former Junior Kiwi Test captain made his mark as a 19-year-old halfback in the Warriors’ debut season. The grandson of Maunga Emery, NZ international halfback of the 1960s, Jones was selected in the Kiwis’ World Cup squad at the end of 1995 and was a regular visitor to the Test arena during the...

Great Britain Test forward played for St Helens (1982-87) and Wigan (1988-94) during his English career before joining his former Wigan coach John Monie and fellow team mates Dean Bell, Denis Betts and Frano Botica at Auckland for the Warriors’ debut season in the ARL. Platt played 35 games for...

‘All Black’ legend with a record 63 RU Test matches to his credit changed codes to play for the Auckland Warriors in 1995. The grandson of Jack Kirwan, who represented the Kiwis after changing codes in 1926, and the cousin of former Test captain Mark Graham, Kirwan made his RU Test debut in 1984...