While the Warriors won't feature this weekend in NRL festivities, there's still plenty of Kiwis on show in both the men's and women's Grand Finals.
In fact, tomorrow's NRLW decider between the Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast Yitans will pit together two code-hopping Kiwis in rugby sevens veteran Niall Guthrie and Super Rugby Aupiki finalist, Abigail Roache.
Roache told 1News she was going up against one of her heroes in tomorrow’s showpiece match with the pair sharing a past in sevens.
"She's been such a role model,” Roach said.
“I grew up and was really young when I first played with her back in sevens. She's been an absolute inspiration – to be in the same arena as her is such a privilege."
The feeling is mutual for Guthrie who, after injuries almost ended her playing days permanently, earned an emotional send off from the Black Ferns Sevens earlier this year before her brave new adventure into rugby league.
But the 35-year-old said her code switch couldn't have gone any better.
"To get great things in life you have to do some things that are uncomfortable,” Guthrie told 1News.
“After I finished with sevens I had 10 days with family – I flew [to Australia] on a Sunday, started pre-season on a Monday and five months later, I'm in the Grand Final!”
She’s now just 70 minutes away from emulating her brother and fellow code-swapping success story, Sonny Bill Williams.
"It's 10 years to the day actually since I watched my brother play in a Grand Final,” she recalled.
“He may have reminded me he's already got two but who's counting?”
While a championship is an obvious motivator for the pair, making their families proud back in Aotearoa is also at the front of their minds.
“They've been my number one,” an emotional Roache said.
“They’ve been my number one supporters since way back and everything I do is for them."
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