Mt smart stadium

The Penrose-based venue has been the home of the New Zealand Warriors since 1995, where they began their jounrey as a start-up franchise.

Moana Pasifika patron Tuifa'asisina Sir Bryan Williams said they were humbled to share Mt Smart as its home playing base.

"We've worked extremely hard to get to this point, and to have a sense of home and place to continue building our unique brand in the world's most competitive professional competition is huge," he said.

Head Coach Seilala Mapusua has also made two changes to his starting 15 that took on the Maori All Blacks just last week.

Olajuwon Noa will start at blindside flanker in his debut for the side.

Tietie Tuimauga has retained his starting spot at loosehead prop. 

The other new players are Neela Fomai, Tomasi Alosio, Jonah Aoina, Theo Mcfarlene and Jonathan Taumateine.
The reserve list features Seilala Lam and Ed Fidow finally getting their chance to don the blue jersey after completing their Managed Isolation Quarantine two weeks ago. 

New Zealand Rugby League is expecting a crowd above 20,000 for Saturday's test between the Kiwis and Tonga, which is still way up on the 12,763 fans that turned up to watch New Zealand stun Australia at the Auckland venue last October. 

However, tickets for this weekend's clash - the first between the two nations since Tonga's historic upset at the 2017 World Cup - have not sold as fast as expected.

It's a change from Tonga's previous two games at Mt Smart, when a 'sea of red' flooded the stands.