Warriors eye revenge against Knights pack

Having been rolled by the Newcastle forward pack on home turf two months ago, the Warriors have revenge on their minds ahead of Saturday night's rematch against the Knights at McDonald Jones Stadium.

The Auckland-based side had no answer for the Newcastle big men back in round eight, as the Knights dominated the middle and ran for over 300 metres more than the Warriors in a 36-18 victory.

Warrior Lachlan Burr, who returns from injury this week to replace Leivaha Pulu on the interchange, said payback was front and centre of the forward pack's minds.

"Yeah of course [we want to get one back]. They really dominated the middle last time we played them," Burr told NRL.com.

"They definitely caught us with our pants down and they just controlled the middle.

"Their line speed, kick chase and the way they played with getting a good roll on, that took our back five out of the game.

"This week we want to focus on getting in the grind against them."

Burr acknowledged his side's job would be made easier by the absence of David Klemmer, who will miss the match after being called up to the NSW Origin squad mid-week as a replacement for Tariq Sims. Klemmer's fellow starting prop Daniel Saifiti will also be absent on NSW duty.

Klemmer was in devastating touch when the Warriors and Knights last met, carrying the ball 18 times for 207 metres, 76 of which came after contact.

"It's a big difference without him, he's basically their forward leader and without him they are probably not going to be as dominant," Burr said of Klemmer.

"So that's good for us, [but] we have got to really control that middle with their big bodies running still, and you have to get numbers in and slow it right down."

After winning just one of their opening six games this year, the Knights have powered back into top-four contention over the past two months, with defence a key factor in their resurgence.  

In their last eight games Newcastle have averaged just 15.5 points conceded, while scoring 27 on average through that same period.

"I think they have been playing some really good footy over the last month and a bit and defending really well," Warriors coach Stephen Kearney said.

"I thought they outdid us physically [last time] so we have got to be ready for that.

"They are playing with a great deal of confidence."

Meanwhile Burr told NRL.com he had now recovered fully from the niggling hip injury which prevented him from training for much of June, and saw him sit out last week's 19-18 loss to the Penrith Panthers.

Along with a period of rest, Burr credits a cycle of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, which uses injections of a concentration of a patient’s own blood cells to accelerate healing.

"It's feeling good and I think altogether now I have had almost three weeks off, so I'm feeling fresh and I'm feeling like the PRP shots I was getting are doing their job," Burr told NRL.com.

"I had been sore for the two weeks leading up to the Penrith game, so I hadn't really trained too much and I probably wouldn’t have got the third PRP shot if I'd had to play in that game.

"It was in my best interests really to sit it out and as a result this week I managed to get through the full session [on Wednesday]."