Warriors coach Andrew McFadden has confirmed the club will enter an early guilty plea for Ngani Laumape's grade three dangerous throw charge.
That will see the 22-year-old centre miss the Warriors' next three matches, with the club not willing to risk a longer ban by challenging the grading.
"We will take the early guilty plea. We had a good discussion about it and had a look at some of the other tackles with a similar grading and have decided we will take the early plea," McFadden said at training today.
"We certainly thought about it [contesting the grading], but the risk of challenging it and losing it would have meant five weeks for Ngani, and we would have only got him down to two weeks anyway.
"I thought the grading was probably fair given the other tackles I have seen."
McFadden said that the playing group had discussed the tackle, which saw Laumape lift Broncos prop Josh McGuire into a dangerous position five minutes into the second half of their 19-10 victory over Brisbane last Saturday.
"We discussed it as a group, it is a learning thing for him," he said.
"It was a poor technique and certainly a technique we don't practice.
"It was a lazy effort and it has got in him in trouble and he is going to pay the ultimate price for that now."
Taking Laumape's spot at left centre is 103-game veteran Dane Nielsen, who has spent the last five weeks playing for the club's New South Wales Cup side.
"We have called Dane back into the side and we are really excited for him, he has worked really hard, is looking fitter and is certainly very motivated," McFadden said.
"He has been playing well in the NSW Cup side and deserves his chance."
Meanwhile both the side's starting wingers, David Fusitu'a and Manu Vatuvei, are yet to train this week, nursing injuries which may keep them out of Sunday's clash with the Panthers at Mount Smart Stadium.
"Manu has a bit of a cork in his quad and Dave Fusitu'a is still a good chance of playing. He is still a bit sore but very optimistic about his chances," McFadden confirmed.
