The 1995 Auckland Warriors season was the inaugural season of the newly-formed club. Competing the 1995 Australian Rugby League premiership, they were coached by John Monie and captained by Dean Bell. The Warriors' home ground for their first season was Ericsson Stadium. They finished their first premiership regular season 10th (out of 20), so failed to make the finals.
Milestones
10 March - Round One: The Warriors play their inaugural game against the Brisbane Broncos. A crowd of 29,220 watch the Warriors go down 25-22 to the Broncos, after leading them throughout the game.
16 March - Round Three: The Warriors are docked two competition points for using an extra interchange player in a win over the Western Suburbs Magpies. They would ultimately miss out on the finals by two points. The fifth interchange player was sent on as a blood bin replacement, with the coaching staff not realising this was against the rules.[1]
23 April - Round Seven:Stacey Jones makes his debut for the Warriors, scoring six points in a win over Parramatta.
The Warriors inaugural jersey was produced by Canterbury of New Zealand. The Jersey was blue with a Green, Red and White "V". In part, the colours were based on the traditional Auckland colours of Blue and White. The main sponsor was DB Bitter, with Ansett Australia as the sleeve sponsor. Asics, Coca-Cola and Mitsubishi also had sponsorship deals.
The Warriors used Ericsson Stadium as their home ground in 1995, and it remained the only Home Ground the club used in the competition until they played a match at Eden Park in 2011.
Pre-Season
Three pre-season matches were played before the World Sevens and another three were played after the World Sevens.
The Warriors participated in the ARL's Reserve grade competition that mirrored the senior draw. The Reserve grade side made the top eight, finishing eighth, but lost to Penrith 8-14 in the Quarterfinals.[7]
In the Club Championship the Warriors finished seventh overall.
After trailing 15–2 at halftime the North Harbour Sea Eagles came from behind to defeat the Warrior Colts 28–21 in the second Lion Red Cup Grand Final.[8] The match included an eight-point try scored by Paki Tuimavave in the 48th minute. Tuimavave was tackled high by Aaron Lester while he was grounding the ball. Lester was then sin-binned for back chatting the referee after the incident.
Team
Halftime
Total
North Harbour Sea Eagles
2
28
Auckland Warriors Colts
15
21
Tries (North Harbour)
1: F. Fuimaono, S. Wilson, P. Tuimavave, J. Palmada
The Auckland Warriors, along with seven other clubs, signed with News Limited to form a new competition in 1996, the Super League. Thirteen players signed with the new competition on 2 April 1995, after the Warriors' Round 4 loss to the North Sydney Bears, with coach John Monie having signed in late March. The club as a whole signed with News Limited on 20 April. This decision meant that Auckland Warriors players became ineligible for the New South Wales and QueenslandState of Origin sides and the Australian Kangaroos. The New Zealand Rugby League and English Rugby Football League organisations had also signed with News Limited and so the majority of Warriors players were still eligible to represent their countries at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup.