1998 Auckland Warriors season

The 1998 Auckland Warriors season was the 4th in the club's history. Coached by Frank Endacott and captained by Matthew Ridge, they competed in the 1998 NRL season, finishing the regular season 15th (out of 20 teams).

1998 Auckland Warriors season
NRL Rank	15th
1998 record	Wins: 7; draws: 0; losses: 15
Points scored	For: 233; against: 243
Team information
CEO	Bill MacGowan
Coach	Frank Endacott
Captain	Matthew Ridge
Stadium	Ericsson Stadium
Avg. attendance	8,858
Top scorers
Tries	Nigel Vagana (13)
Goals	Matthew Ridge (51)
Points	Matthew Ridge (110)
← 1997 1999 →

Milestones

• 10 April – Round 5: Joe Vagana plays his 50th match for the club.
• 19 April – Round 6: Syd Eru plays his 50th match for the club.

Jersey & Sponsors

For 1998 the Warriors again used a similar style of jersey, produced by Nike, Inc. DB Bitter remained the major sponsor while Bartercard joined as the sleeve sponsor.^[1]

Fixtures

See also: List of New Zealand Warriors results

The Warriors used Ericsson Stadium as their home ground in 1997, their only home ground since they entered the competition in 1995.

Pre-season trials

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
13 February	Trial 1	North Queensland Cowboys	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Lost	22–26				[2]
22 February	Trial 2	Auckland selection	Carlaw Park, Auckland	Win	22–4				[3]
28 February	Trial 3	Canterbury Bulldogs	Queen Elizabeth II Park, Christchurch	Win	20–8	Ngamu, Eru, N.Vagana	Ngamu (4)		[4][5]

Regular season

Date	Round	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Tries	Goals	Attendance	Report
13 March	Round 1	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	18–24	Ngamu, Kearney	Ngamu (5)	9,500	[6]
21 March	Round 2	Newcastle Knights	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle	Loss	4–33	Hoppe		23,503	[7]
27 March	Round 3	Sydney City Roosters	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	25–14	Hoppe, Jones, Seuseu, N.Vagana	Ridge (4), Ngamu (FG)	9,000	[8]
4 April	Round 4	St. George Dragons	Oki Jubilee Stadium, Sydney	Loss	24–28	N.Vagana (2), Ropati, Smith	Ridge (4)	10,003	[9]
10 April	Round 5	Melbourne Storm	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	16–12	Hoppe, Jones, Tatupu	Ridge (2)	14,503	[10]
19 April	Round 6	North Sydney Bears	North Sydney Oval, Sydney	Loss	26–44	Jones, Lauitiiti, Tatupu, N.Vagana	Ridge (5)	10,945	[11]
26 April	Round 7	Newcastle Knights	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	14–38	Ropati, N.Vagana	Ridge (3)	7,500	[12]
2 May	Round 8	Sydney City Roosters	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Loss	4–22	Oudenryn		5,308	[13]
8 May	Round 9	Cronulla Sharks	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	8–20	Ropati	Ridge (2)	7,500	[14]
16 May	Round 10	Canterbury Bulldogs	Belmore Sports Ground, Sydney	Win	20–6	Jones, Oudenryn, A.Swann	Ridge (4)	5,224	[15]
24 May	Round 11	Canberra Raiders	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	25–14	Hoppe (2), N.Vagana (2)	Ridge (4), Whittaker (FG)	8,000	[16]
30 May	Round 12	Parramatta Eels	Parramatta Stadium, Sydney	Loss	6–14	Kearney	Whittaker (1)	13,218	[17]
7 June	Round 13	Penrith Panthers	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	15–14	Ngamu, Whittaker	Ngamu (3 & FG)	7,000	[18]
13 June	Round 14	Western Suburbs Magpies	Campbelltown Sports Ground, Sydney	Loss	16–18	Jones, Oudenryn, Jones	Ngamu (2)	5,933	[19]
21 June	Round 15	St. George Dragons	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	31–14	Eru, Jones, Kearney, Ropati, L.Swann	Ngamu (5 & FG)	8,300	[20]
27 June	Round 16	Melbourne Storm	Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne	Win	24–21	Eru, Galuvao, Ngamu, Tatupu	Ngamu (4)	13,127	[21]
4 July	Round 17	Illawarra Steelers	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	17–14	Eur, Kearney, J.Vagana	Jones (1)	12,500	[22]
11 July	Round 18	Gold Coast Chargers	Carrara Stadium, Gold Coast	Loss	18–31	Endacott, Eru, Staladi	Ridge (3)	5,490	[23]
17 July	Round 19	Balmain Tigers	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	21–20	Ridge, Tatupu, N.Vagana	Ridge (4), Jones (FG)	6,000	[24]
26 July	Round 20	Adelaide Rams	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide	Loss	20–22	Ridge, N.Vagana, J.Vagana	Ridge (4)	7,445	[25]
31 July	Round 21	North Queensland Cowboys	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Win	34–18	N.Vagana (3), Iro (2), Staladi	Ridge (5)	4,500	[26]
9 August	Round 22	South Sydney Rabbitohs	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	Loss	18–20	Lauitiiti (2), Seuseu	Ridge (3)	3,733	[27]
16 August	Round 23	Brisbane Broncos	ANZ Stadium, Brisbane	Loss	4–16		Ridge (2)	16,456	[28]
23 August	Round 24	Manly Sea Eagles	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	Loss	12–38	Kearney, Lauitiiti	Ridge (2)	12,000	[29]

Kiwi Trial matches

After the National Rugby League season had finished the Warriors played in two trial matches against a New Zealand XIII. These matches acted as a trial for the New Zealand national rugby league team before the October test against Australia and the tour of Great Britain.

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Score	Report
17 September	New Zealand XIII	Rugby Park, New Plymouth	Win	66–4	[30][31][32]
23 September	New Zealand XIII	Carlaw Park, Auckland	Win	60–16	[33]

Ladder

1998 NRL season

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Brisbane Broncos (P)	24	18	1	5	688	310	+378	37
2	Newcastle Knights	24	18	1	5	562	381	+181	37
3	Melbourne Storm	24	17	1	6	546	372	+174	35
4	Parramatta Eels	24	17	1	6	468	349	+119	35
5	North Sydney Bears	24	17	0	7	663	367	+296	34
6	Sydney City Roosters	24	16	0	8	680	383	+297	32
7	Canberra Raiders	24	15	0	9	564	429	+135	30
8	St. George Dragons	24	13	1	10	486	490	−4	27
9	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	24	13	0	11	489	411	+78	26
10	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	24	13	0	11	503	473	+30	26
11	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	24	12	1	11	438	387	+51	25
12	Illawarra Steelers	24	11	1	12	476	539	−63	23
13	Balmain Tigers	24	9	1	14	381	463	−82	19
14	Penrith Panthers	24	8	2	14	525	580	−55	18
15	Auckland Warriors	24	9	0	15	417	518	−101	18
16	North Queensland Cowboys	24	9	0	15	361	556	−195	18
17	Adelaide Rams	24	7	0	17	393	615	−222	14
18	South Sydney Rabbitohs	24	5	0	19	339	560	−221	10
19	Gold Coast Chargers	24	4	0	20	289	654	−365	8
20	Western Suburbs Magpies	24	4	0	20	371	802	−431	8

Source: ^[34]
(P) Premiers

Squad

See also: List of New Zealand Warriors players

Twenty nine players were used by the club in 1998, including four players who made their first grade debuts.

No.	Name	Nationality	Position	Warriors Debut	App	T	G	FG	Pts
3	Sean Hoppe		WG	10 March 1995	15	5	0	0	20
6	Gene Ngamu		FE	10 March 1995	17	3	19	3	53
11	Stephen Kearney		SR	10 March 1995	21	5	0	0	20
12	Tony Tatupu		SR	10 March 1995	19	4	0	0	16
13	Tony Tuimavave		PR / LK	10 March 1995	9	0	0	0	0
15	Tea Ropati		CE / FE	10 March 1995	15	4	0	0	16
18	Joe Vagana		PR	18 March 1995	22	2	0	0	8
19	Syd Eru		HK	28 March 1995	13	4	0	0	16
24	Stacey Jones		HB	23 April 1995	24	6	1	1	27
29	Marc Ellis		FB / WG	31 March 1996	2	0	0	0	0
32	Nigel Vagana		CE	4 April 1996	23	13	0	0	52
33	Awen Guttenbeil		SR	14 April 1996	10	0	0	0	0
36	Anthony Swann		CE	23 June 1996	9	1	0	0	4
37	Brady Malam		PR	23 June 1996	24	0	0	0	0
38	Bryan Henare		SR	23 July 1996	1	0	0	0	0
40	Matthew Ridge		FB	1 March 1997	18	2	51	0	110
42	Logan Swann		SR	1 March 1997	24	1	0	0	4
44	Shane Endacott		FE	29 March 1997	17	1	0	0	4
45	Paul Staladi		WG	27 April 1997	11	2	0	0	8
47	Lee Oudenryn		WG	6 July 1997	20	3	0	0	12
48	Aaron Whittaker		HB	29 June 1997	7	1	1	1	7
50	Jerry Seu Seu		PR	16 August 1997	17	2	0	0	8
51	Kevin Iro		CE	13 March 1998	16	2	0	0	8
52	Quentin Pongia		PR	13 March 1998	18	0	0	0	0
53	Tyran Smith		SR	13 March 1998	10	1	0	0	4
54	Zane Clarke		HK	13 March 1998	5	0	0	0	0
55	Ali Lauitiiti		SR	19 April 1998	8	4	0	0	16
56	Joe Galuvao		FB / CE	2 May 1998	11	1	0	0	4
57	Frank Watene		PR	23 August 1998	1	0	0	0	0

Staff

• Chief Executive Officer: Bill MacGowan

Coaching Staff

• Head Coach: Frank Endacott

Transfers

Gains

Player	Previous Club	Length	Notes
Tony Tatupu	Warrington Wolves		Warrior 1995–1996
Nigel Vagana	Warrington Wolves		Warrior 1996
Kevin Iro	Hunter Mariners
Quentin Pongia	Canberra Raiders
Tyran Smith	North Queensland Cowboys

Losses

Player	Club	Notes
Aaron Lester	Whitehaven
Phil Blake	Retired
Hitro Okesene	Wigan Warriors
Denis Betts	Wigan Warriors
Mark Horo	Retired
Iva Ropati	Retired
Grant Young	London Broncos
Steve Buckingham	Mount Albert Lions
Meti Noovao	Adelaide Rams

Mid-Season Losses

Player	Club	Notes
Marc Ellis	North Harbour Rugby Union	[1]

Other Teams

Due to the axing of the Reserve grade competition the Auckland Warriors reserve team played in a series of matches against New Zealand Provincial sides.^[35]

Date	Opponent	Result	Score	Venue	Report
March–April	Auckland	Win	26–24	Auckland
March–April	Auckland	Win	26–24	Auckland
26 April	Waikato Cougars	Win	54–0	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland	[36]
2 May	Canterbury Reds	Win	35–0	Rugby League Park, Christchurch
24 May	Canterbury Reds	Win	38–14	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland
	Northland Wild Boars	Win	54–12	Jubilee Park, Whangarei
	Waikato Cougars	Win	76–0	Resthills Park, Hamilton
	Coastline Mariners	Win	66–6	Tauranga Domain, Tauranga
	West Coast Chargers	Win	56–2	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland
	West Coast Chargers	Win	46–8	Wingham Park, West Coast
	Hawkes Bay Unicorns	Win	90–10	Nelson Park, Hastings
	Manawatu Mustangs	Win	32–10	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland
	Manawatu Mustangs	Win	54–4	Foxton
	Wellington Pumas	Win	50–18	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland
	Wellington Pumas	Win	44–10	Hutt Valley
	Taranaki Sharks	Win	42–8	New Plymouth
	Taranaki Sharks	Win	56–10	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland
August	Auckland	Win	28–24	Ericsson Stadium, Auckland

Awards

Joe Vagana was the Player of the Year.^[37]