Warriors

The home side produced a superb defensive effort to hand the Dragons their first loss of the season.

The win had seemed safe with 14 minutes to go when hooker Isaac Luke grabbed the home side's third try.

Luke, who made several dummy-half runs, produced a 40-20 and finished off by scoring close to the line.

But the Dragons set up a grandstand finish when second-rower Tariq Sims forced his way over for a converted try with six minutes to go to close the gap to four points.

The third-placed Warriors announced Mason Lino would start at halfback, with Anthony Gelling to make his season debut for Solomone Kata.

The clash will lose some of its lustre because of Johnson's injury, with the words "blockbuster", "Dragons" and "Warriors" traditionally not belonging together.

The two clubs - or three if you include the four years of the Warriors' existence before St George and Illawarra merged - have made the finals just five times in the same season.

They have never met in a finals match.

Actually doing it will be even more difficult.

Traditionally, the words "blockbuster billing", "St George Illawarra" and "Warriors" haven't belonged in the same sentence.

The two clubs - or three if you include the four years of the Warriors' existence before St George and Illawarra merged - have made the finals in the same season just five times.

Nor have they ever met in a finals clash.

In simple terms, this makes Friday night's match the biggest ever played between the two sides.

With Leivaha Pulu forced to the sidelines after sustaining a foot injury in last weeks first loss of the season to the Broncos, Mannering will take Pulu's place on the left edge.

Filling Mannering's spot on the interchange is front rower Albert Vete who is yet to play a first grade game this season.

Warriors centre Solomone Kata was seen carried off the field last week with ankle trouble but has been named to start pending a fitness test.

Already boasting an unprecedented 5-0 start to the season, the second-placed

Warriors face their third Queensland side in three games at Mount Smart Stadium having disposed of Gold Coast 20-8 on March 17 and North Queensland 22-12 in the second leg of last week's double header in front of the biggest regular season crowd of 25,600 since 1995.

Kearney has named the same starting line-up used against the Cowboys while there are two changes on the extended eight-man bench.

Skipper Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and his men have taken the club's best start to a campaign to 5-0, staying with St George Illawarra as the competition's only unbeaten teams.

Unfancied by many pundits at the beginning of 2018, the Warriors are firming as favourites to make their first finals appearance since 2011.

They again demonstrated their new-found defensive resilience against the Cowboys.

Last year's grand finalists have now lost four games in a row.

The Warriors were dealt a massive blow when halfback Shaun Johnson was ruled out with a groin injury on the eve of the Sydney game.

In past years, such a setback would have caused the New Zealand side to put the cue in the rack but they rallied to record an important two points.

Johnson's fill-in, Mason Lino, was superb. However, Green was the chief architect as the Warriors recorded their first win without Johnson since round 22, 2014.

The Warriors are unbeaten after four rounds and look genuine contenders after six years in the finals wilderness.

Lisone was hit with two grade one charges for dangerous contact to the head of Raiders utility Aiden Sezer, in near identical carries late in the match at GIO Stadium.

Neither incident drew a penalty from the referee, which would've prevented Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson from nailing two late field goals to steal the match.

Lisone's teammate Adam Blair also took the early guilty plea for his late shot to the back of Sezer in the same match, but will not miss a match.

Sunday night's Ed Sheeran concert at Mt Smart prevented Warriors staff from gaining access to the club's headquarters to store playing gear and other equipment, including GPS trackers and game jerseys, after returning from Canberra.

They were forced to temporarily stash it away in an unmarked van outside a staff member's home on Auckland's North Shore, where it was pillaged overnight.

Warriors CEO Cameron George said they were "devastated" by the turn of events.

The 19-year-old Papali'i limped off early in last week's 20-8 win over Gold Coast and has since been ruled out for up to six weeks with a medial knee ligament sprain.

He'll be replaced in the second row by ex-Titan Pulu, who has twice started on the bench this season and will line up alongside Tohu Harris and lock Ligi Sao.

As a result, fellow Warriors recruit Agnatius Paasi comes onto the bench, where he'll join another new face in Jazz Tevaga, who replaces Sam Cook.

Coach Stephen Kearney talked up Pulu's NRL pedigree.