Tigers vs Warriors NRL Rd 3 betting tips – Friday, March 25

Round three of the 2022 NRL Premiership sees the New Zealand Warriors travel to Sydney to take on the Wests Tigers at one of the latter club’s spiritual homes, Campbelltown Stadium. Of 33 meetings between these sides, the Warriors have won on 17 occasions, including their last two clashes by a total of six points. Both of these teams have begun this season with two straight losses, but for very different reasons.

This contest will be incredibly close, but do not expect it to be of a high quality. The Warriors are missing playmakers Shaun Johnson and Ashley Taylor, forward Tohu Harris and outside backs Viliami Vailea and Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, a key contributing factor to their two narrow losses this year.

On the other side of the park, after a solid start to the season despite losing to Melbourne in round one, the Tigers were completely bereft of leadership, effort and execution in a huge loss last week to the Newcastle Knights. To make matters even worse, five-eighth Jackson Hastings must front the judiciary to fight a dangerous throw charge and clear his name to play in round three.

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It appears the only hope the Wests Tigers have of winning this game is long-term halfback Luke Brooks overcoming reported off-field unhappiness at the club to steer his team around Campbelltown and fight out a tough win over the Warriors. That seems a long shout as captain Tyrone Peachy openly stated he didn’t know what his job was prior to the round two clash with the Knights, while fellow captain Kan Maumalo said he felt the side was “underdone” post-game Sunday.

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For the Warriors, they appear to have a lot of scope for improvement. Forward Matt Lodge returned to the side last week and “overheated” in his opening stint before hurling on the sideline. He will certainly improve to partner wrecking ball Addin Fonua-Blake in the middle. Kodi Nikorima has been named in the halves and will be a running threat to go along with the already dangerous young pairing of Chanel Harris-Tavita and Reece Walsh. Throw into the mix a strong backline including Josh Curran, and the Warriors should be flying heading into this Friday evening clash.

Key matchup: Tigers centres vs Warriors centres

The key battle in this will be the defensive play of both centre pairings. Tigers pairing Oliver Gildart and James Roberts are clearly battling injury and defensive structure issues respectively. This Friday they will have big outside edges running in their direction, forcing the Tigers centres to make plenty of key defensive decisions.

Tigers vs Warriors predictions & best bets

Expect for there to be poor decisions made in defence by a Tigers outfit that appears to have no intrinsic drive to win games of football. With Wests’ struggles expected to continue on the field, it is easy see the Warriors playmakers creating space for back-rower Eliesa Katoa to score as the Warriors beat the Tigers at home.

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