New Zealand Warriors

The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and are the League's only team from outside Australia. Currently coached by Andrew McFadden and captained by Simon Mannering, the Warriors are based at Mt Smart Stadium in the southern 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 mid-1990s' Super League war, Auckland left the ARL to compete in the Super League competition of 1997, before joining the re-unified NRL the following year. They re-branded themselves the New Zealand Warriors in 2001. Over seventeen 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.