Eels face full house in NZ

By Adam Sutcliffe

The NZ Warriors have sold out Mt Smart Stadium yet again, as Kiwi's rushed to snap up tickets for the NZ Warriors semi-final match; all tickets selling in the space of 1 hour.

The Warriors have created additional seating and erected temporary grand stands to allow up to 29,000 people to view what should be a classic encounter at Mt Smart Stadium.

NZ officials have encouraged all locals to dress themselves in black, to give the ground a real New Zealand feel. It will be a daunting road trip for the 5th placed Parramatta Eels and their attacking style shown against the Broncos will once again be required to overpower the fancied NZ Warriors outfit.

Several of Parramatta's senior players have come out and spoken about keeping their attacking flair in check; telling the younger players to hold off on too many flick passes and chip kicks in the weeks ahead.

Now while the style of Rugby League in the semi-finals certainly changes, if Parramatta want to be a serious threat in this finals series they need to give themsleves every chance of defeating the heavy-weights - to do this they need to load up their arsenal and give their young guns a licence to thrill at every opportunity.

With Melbourne and Manly finishing so far ahead of everyone else, it will take something special from the Eels and the other teams to run down the Top 2 teams. Safety first, one out runs are not going to be enough - that is for certain.

Before either the Eels or Warriors can worry about the Top 2 teams, they need to get things in order for Friday night as they kick off the NRL Finals Series in Game 1.