Warriors backflip on Lennox Head base

NRL believed to have chosen Tamworth over Lennox Head for Warriors training camp.

Warriors coach Stephen Kearney and CEO Cameron George. Photo Darren Pateman.

A LATE change will see the New Zealand Warriors set up camp at Tamworth after initial plans to base the NRL team in Lennox Head were scrapped.

It is believed Tamworth is the preferred option given to the club by the NRL on Monday night with the Warriors expected to arrive in Australia on Sunday.

The Warriors did not confirm whether they had locked in a plan at Tamworth when contacted today.

With Border Security having granted the team permission to travel from New Zealand, the NSW government only needs to sign off on the team being able to train together in quarantine.

The Warriors were expected to have full access to the Lake Ainsworth Sport and Recreation Centre during their stay at Lennox Head.

Tamworth is home to the Group 4 rugby league competition and boasts one of the better fields in the country region at Scully Park.

The players and staff will be expected to go into isolation with no contact from outsiders and will have more than a week of normal activity before the competition resumes.

The Warriors are no strangers to the Northern Rivers region ‒ chief executive Cameron George is the son of former long-serving Lismore MP Thomas George.

The club spent time at Kingscliff when the season kicked off in March and were also part of a fundraising initiative with Tenterfield after the bushfires in December.

A handful of Warriors players had spent time at the Lennox Head recreation centre before the whole team returned to New Zealand last month.

"We had some guys spend a couple of weeks there recently while we were in isolation on the Gold Coast … they were glowing with reports around the training facility and what it offered us," Cameron George said.