New Zealand Warriors, Rugby League

The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formerly known as the Auckland Warriors, and are officially known as the Vodafone Warriors.[2] The Warriors are coached by Stephen Kearney and captained by Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. They are based at Mt Smart Stadium in the central south Auckland suburb of Penrose.

For the 1995 season the newly formed Auckland Warriors became the first off-shore club to be admitted to the Australian Rugby League's premiership when it expanded from 16 to 20 teams. As a result of the Super League war in the mid-1990s, Auckland left the ARL to compete in the Super League competition of 1997, before joining the re-unified NRL during the following year. They re-branded themselves the New Zealand Warriors in 2001. Over 21 seasons the Warriors have claimed one minor premiership (in 2002), reached two grand finals (2002 and 2011), reached the play-offs 7 times, and provided the majority of the New Zealand national team's players.