Player Sebastine Ikahihifo

[Fazz_old]

Sebastine Ikahihifo

​

Ikahihifo to play first NYC game of season
Junior Kiwi Sebastine Ikahihifo returns from a long injury layoff to make his first appearance of the season in the Vodafone Junior Warriors’ 13th-round NYC clash against the Sydney Roosters at Sydney Football Stadium tomorrow night.
The 20-year-old loose forward was among the NYC premiership-winning side’s top performers last year, culminating in him playing for the Junior Kiwis in two internationals against the Junior Kangaroos.
However, a broken leg in the offseason kept him sidelined until a few weeks ago when he began his comeback with his Auckland club Mangere East.
He comes onto the interchange bench this weekend as the Vodafone Junior Warriors seek to extend their winning streak to five. Since losing to Melbourne on Anzac Day they’ve overpowered Penrith 56-26, Gold Coast 38-20, Newcastle 48-28 and South Sydney 62-6 to surge to the top of the points table.
Apart from Ikahihifo’s inclusion, coach John Ackland has made two other changes from the side used in the clash against the Rabbitohs. Jordan Meads returns at halfback for Eko Malu and prop Nathaniel Peteru, who came back home after being in Brisbane’s junior system, will make his debut after being sidelined with a hand injury.
When the Vodafone Junior Warriors met the Roosters in Auckland in April, they won 42-0. They’ve set themselves apart as the competition’s most prolific points-scoring team of the season, scoring a total of 422 points so far (an average of 38 points a game).
Winger DJ Collier is the NYC’s top points scorer with 124 points – he has played only nine games – while fullback Omar Slaimankhel is the leading try-scorer with 14 touchdowns in 11 appearances (and a career tally of 26 tries in 23 games).

VODAFONE JUNIOR WARRIORS v SYDNEY ROOSTERS

Sydney Football Stadium, Randiwck
5.15pm, Saturday, June 4


VODAFONE WARRIORS

1 OMAR SLAIMANKHEL
2 SIMON GIBSON
3 SOSAIA FEKI
4 KONRAD HURRELL
5 DJ COLLIER
6 ADAM HENRY
7 JORDAN MEADS
8 SIULONGUA FOTOFILI
9 EDDIE AKI
10 DONALD TONY
11 SAMIUELA LOUSI
12 BEN HENRY (c)
13 JOHN PALAVI
Interchange:
14 SILIVA HAVILI
15 SIO SIUA TAUKEIAHO
16 NATHAN IEL PETERU
17 SEBASTINE IKAHIHIFO
18 EKO MALU

COACH: JOHN ACKLAND

Good news imo, he'll only strengthen the team.

 

[PB_old]

IKAHIHIFO.

There's a RHCP song there somewhere.

 

[NEWBIE_old]

a future first grader no doubt hopefully for the Warriors, Great work rate, will help the defence, which i have to say needs improving if they want to win the comp again

 

[Fazz_old]

Hopefully. He'll find it hard to find a spot in the 2nd row/lock. But I'm hopeful he can force his way in there. I wish there was room for both Ikahihifo, Taylor, Brown and Tai'ai in the 2nd row. Unfortunately there's probably only room for 2 of them at most.

 

[Spence_old]

Adam Henry at 6 will be interesting. Could Viking perhaps provide us with a bit of insight?

 

[Fazz_old]

Henry played there last game too. Ran the ball a fair bit but I didn't notice him doing much kicking.

 

[Spence_old]

Ah my bad, I didn't see the game.

 

[PB_old]

I just want anyone with a tricky name to make the grade so we can mess with the Aussie commentators' heads. I love the idea of their prep and match call being a nightmare.

 

[Fazz_old]

Ah my bad, I didn't see the game.

Haha sweet as. But yeah I don't know how much play making he did, seemed to just be doing his own thing, we won though so meh. It'll do until one of our halves get back from injury lol

 

[Chch fan_old]

Pretty fair efforts given that Mead and Carlos have both been missing. Good to see Mead back. I'm no expert but it looked to me as if Carlos did a lot of organisation on defence and thats hert them a bit in the last few weeks.
Geeting back on topic am really looking foward to seeing Ikahihfo back although it will probibly take him a couple of games to get back to his best.

 

[bigstuboy_old]

such great news this kid was on fire last year for junior warriors and jnr kiwis

 

[Hitman82]

Hitman82 submitted a new Showcase Item:

Sebastine Ikahihifo

• Educated at Southern Cross Campus in Auckland
• Played for the Warriors NYC team 2009 - 2011, including their Grand Final victories in 2010 and 2011
• Junior Kiwis 2010 - 2011
• Won Player's Player of the Day for his NRL debut game

Read more about this showcase item here...

 

[Defence]

Always been a big fan. My daughter even named her budgie after him.
Been round the scene for a couple of years now tho and it's time to start delivering on a more consistent basis.
Powerfully built with a big motor.
When he made his debut my mate I was watching the game with hadn't heard of him and goes- far out I'm getting tired just watching this kid.
With a bit more experience he will start to find his way round the field without expending so much energy then hopefully we will see him hitting holes with the same vigour he did in the 20s.

 

[surfin]

Always been a big fan. My daughter even named her budgie after him.
Been round the scene for a couple of years now tho and it's time to start delivering on a more consistent basis.
Powerfully built with a big motor.
When he made his debut my mate I was watching the game with hadn't heard of him and goes- far out I'm getting tired just watching this kid.
With a bit more experience he will start to find his way round the field without expending so much energy then hopefully we will see him hitting holes with the same vigour he did in the 20s.

The budgie?

 

[Benry's Smile]

cut the spinning crap he does in hit ups and would be a very useful player to bring on later in the games to run at some tired defences, run down the clock

 

[mt.wellington]

cut the spinning crap he does in hit ups and would be a very useful player to bring on later in the games to run at some tired defences, run down the clock

Don't think he needs to cut it out. Just needs to perfect it. Was a common tactic of Pricey's and Wiki's. Also works really well in NFL. He may just crack it and start something new.

I think he'll be around for awhile. Did well enough when chucked in the deep end at the start of last year including playing 62 minutes in the Round 1 loss to the Eels. He played mostly at centre after Manu Vatuvei was injured in the 5th minute. Missed a game high 5 tackles but to come on and play that long with the big boys showed a hell of a lot of heart. Was only on the bench as a 2nd Rower interchange...

 

[Defence]

The budgie?

Well he does have a big upper body- pretty sure he skips legs day tho

 

[Sebastian]

Don't think he needs to cut it out. Just needs to perfect it. Was a common tactic of Pricey's and Wiki's. Also works really well in NFL. He may just crack it and start something new.

I think he'll be around for awhile. Did well enough when chucked in the deep end at the start of last year including playing 62 minutes in the Round 1 loss to the Eels. He played mostly at centre after Manu Vatuvei was injured in the 5th minute. Missed a game high 5 tackles but to come on and play that long with the big boys showed a hell of a lot of heart. Was only on the bench as a 2nd Rower interchange...

Seb's best performance so far was against Manly. Manly were coming back into the game but Seb made a few hard nut charges and got us some momentuem back. If Manly don't like him. Well that's just a good sign. Be happy to see Seb on the bench instead of Lousi if injured.

 

[Gizzyfan]

I thought he looked a bit raw last year. He seems to have all the attributes, hopefully he is maturing into a more consistently effective player

 

[95tilinfinity]

Ball of muscle that brings great enthusiasm to every charge he does coming off the bench. Just needs to work on his defence and the odd fumble of the ball. Awesome performer for the first title winning twenties team in 2010.