Military precision: Warriors lead NRL teams in training return

The Warriors needed special government exemption to get in the country but are now the first NRL side to hit the training paddock, being put through their paces with military precision on Tuesday.

While NRL rivals are due back for physical training on Wednesday the Warriors' quarantine camp in Tamworth has already swung into gear at Scully Park.

Stephen Kearney's squad was split into four groups and shuttled through field and gym sessions with as little contact with each other as possible.

Captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck reported that most players were "blowing hard" after their first group hit-out following six weeks of stringent quarantine and lock down living in New Zealand.  

"It ran pretty smoothly, we all trained in our groups today," Tuivasa-Sheck said.

"One group was up early for breakfast, they do their mobility, get ready, then get on the field. Then the next group get up and have breakfast and so on, it was almost like a chain.

"We were in the breakfast hall then we leave into the gym and that group stays together and we were just move along like that as a little circuit.

"There's a group out on the field right now doing their session, and then they'll move into their lunchtime slot when we move into our gym session again."

Under the Australian Institute of Sport's return-to-sport guidelines, NRL sides are currently in the Level B stage of training, where "no tackling or wrestling drills" can be completed, only ball work and conditioning.

NRL sides are expected to be able to return to full contact training by next week.

As will be the norm across the game, temperature testing and the constant disinfecting of gym and training equipment took place throughout the Warriors first day back on the job.

Having not had access to regular weights equipment since the NRL went on hiatus, Tuivasa-Sheck said players and staff have been clamouring to use the makeshift gym at their Tamworth compound, some attending "two or three times in a day".

The Warriors arrival in Tamworth has seen local rugby league roll out the red carpet for the Kiwi side, affectionately rebranding them the 'Tamworth Warriors' for their two-week stint in country NSW.

Mayor Col Murray has been none-too subtle about the club "owing us one" in return for the town's hospitality, and hopes to be repaid with an NRL fixture or trial match in future.

"I'm expecting to have some discussions with the Warriors at some point in the future about how they will come back and present to our community in a game at Scully Park sporting facility," Murray told local newspaper The Northern Daily.

Wests Tigers have had to scrap their annual NRL game at Scully Park this year due to COVID-19, but Tuivasa-Sheck said he would be keen to bring his side back to Tamworth down the line.

"At one stage we'd love to come back and play here and try and fill up the stadium," he said.

"[It would be] a way for us to give back to this community that's taken us on. It was such a massive move to turn their domestic airport into an international airport for us to land.

"Once they can allow people to come in and fill up the Scully Park stadium, let's have a big game here."