Accor Stadium will play host to Saturday’s
Round 25 NRL game between South Sydney Rabbitohs and
New Zealand Warriors. The game kicks off at 5:30 pm with New Zealand Warriors heading into the game as favourites with the bookmakers. Continue reading for our in-depth preview of the South Sydney Rabbitohs vs.
New Zealand Warriors
game and give you our free tips and bets.

When: Saturday August 22, 2026 at 5:30 pm

Where: Accor Stadium

Bet 💰: Bet On This Match HERE

South Sydney Rabbitohs vs New Zealand Warriors Odds

South Sydney Rabbitohs vs New Zealand Warriors Preview

South Sydney’s upset of Canterbury was its third win in four games and kept the Rabbitohs firmly in the finals race. Euan Aitken moves into the second row, while Latrell Mitchell has been named among the reserves as he pushes for a return after a lengthy absence. The Warriors arrive with three straight victories, including emphatic wins over Gold Coast and Brisbane around a statement result against Penrith. Their spine changes again, with Luke Hanson joining Chanel Harris-Tavita in the halves and Taine Tuaupiki starting at fullback. New Zealand has won its past two meetings with Souths at Accor Stadium, yet Alex Johnston’s 15 tries in 11 games against the Warriors remain a significant threat. The visitors’ powerful, consistent forward pack should provide the decisive advantage.

Jaipur: When Manav Suthar went unsold at the IPL auction ahead of the 2023 season, disappointment was natural. The left-arm spinner had put together a stellar domestic run, taking 39 wickets in six Ranji Trophy matches in 2022-23, and hoped a franchise contract would provide another platform to showcase his craft.

But there were enough signs to tell him that his efforts were not going unnoticed.

That year brought a Duleep Trophy call-up and a place in the India A squad for the ACC Men’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup, where he finished with 10 wickets in five matches.

Fast-forward to the present and the 24-year-old from Rajasthan is the talk of the town after spinning India to a dominant 165-run victory over Sri Lanka in the first Test in Galle. Suthar finished with 10 wickets in the match — four in the first innings and six in the second — to underline why he has long been considered one of the most exciting left-arm spin prospects in the country. The years spent grinding away on the domestic circuit have undeniably begun to pay off.

Suthar’s journey towards the senior India side had, in fact, begun much earlier. His first significant exposure to the national set-up came in February 2019, when he made his India Under-19 debut in the first ‘Youth Test’ against South Africa Under-19 in Thiruvananthapuram.

With Rahul Dravid then overseeing the youth programme, Suthar returned four wickets in the match, including 3/44 in the second innings, as India won by nine wickets.

It was in such environments that his ability to extract bite from the surface while retaining control began to attract attention. When VVS Laxman took over as head of the National Cricket Academy in 2021, Suthar’s progress continued to be closely tracked.

According to his long-time coach in Sri Ganganagar, Dheeraj Sharma, Laxman’s interest went beyond merely keeping an eye on the numbers.

Sharma recalled how Laxman had alerted then chief selector Chetan Sharma.

“Laxman had told Chetan Sharma that ‘he is a very good spinner, do watch him’. So he came specially to watch,” Dheeraj said.

That visit could hardly have been better timed. When Chetan travelled to Jodhpur to watch Suthar in Rajasthan’s Ranji Trophy match against Chhattisgarh in January 2023, the youngster produced the kind of all-round performance that makes a selector take notice.

He remained unbeaten on 64 in Rajasthan’s first innings before claiming 10 wickets in the match.

For a young left-arm orthodox spinner coming through at a time when India have naturally begun considering their options for the years beyond Ravindra Jadeja, Suthar’s skill set has made him particularly intriguing.

Dheeraj, who has worked with him since his early days, had long impressed upon his ward that his greatest strength lay in being different.

“I always used to tell him that his skill set is not present in any other left-arm orthodox spinner. That skill is now part of his muscle memory,” he said.

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Olympic medallist Jenny Simpson says a “chapter has ended” and she will not return to running after having a cardiac arrest.

The 39-year-old American, a former 1500m world champion, was pacing a mile group at a pop-up event in North Carolina in June when she collapsed.

She required CPR and the use of an automated external defibrillator before being transported to UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh, where she went into cardiac arrest again.

“My heart was severely injured and stunned. My lungs struggled too,” Simpson said in an Instagram post, external on Thursday.

“I was diagnosed with a rare inherited heart condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC).”

ARVC is a genetic condition in which the proteins that normally hold heart muscle cells together do not work properly.

This can cause heart muscle cells to die and be replaced by fatty tissue and scar tissue.

It causes the walls of the heart chambers to become thin and stretched, and the heart cannot pump blood around the body properly.

“My future is an incredible gift. It’s hopeful, and it will continue to have great purpose,” Simpson said.

“But my diagnosis also means it would be dangerous for me to return to running. That chapter has ended. Thankfully, my story hasn’t.”

Simpson won 1500m gold at the 2011 World Championships and bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, and retired from competitive racing at the end of the 2024 season.

“I’m profoundly grateful that I got to have the career I did,” added Simpson, who also won silver medals in the 1500m at the 2013 and 2017 World Championships.

“I experienced everything – from the trenches of training to standing on the top of the podium while our national anthem filled the stadium.”

Ambition can be many things – the enemy of success or what drives people to new heights – just ask a few of the sides lining up for week two of the English Football League.

West Ham United and Leicester City’s ambitions lay well above the Championship and League One respectively but previous failings mean they are now having to dig themselves out of self-constructed holes.

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On the other side of the coin, there are teams like Lincoln City, Bromley and York City who are probably still pinching themselves after last season’s heroics.

The EFL has sub-plots wherever you look and we have selected five things to keep an eye out for this weekend.

Hammers hoping for speedy getaway

Such has been the yo-yo nature of sides relegated from the Premier League in recent seasons, West Ham fans will expect a swift return to the top flight, although their own history suggests sometimes it is never as easy as it sounds.

The last time the Hammers found themselves in the Championship for the 2011-12 campaign, they had to come through the play-offs to earn promotion back to the promised land.

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They look like they mean business this time around – smashing the EFL transfer record by spending £22m on Celtic midfielder Arne Engels before taking Leeds striker Joel Piroe on loan – which will only increase the expectation of a promotion-winning season.

Where will the highest attendance be in England on Saturday? Not in the Premier League, but at the Hammers’ London Stadium where a 62,500 sell-out will have the majority demanding a win over Charlton (15:00 BST).

This will be a first league meeting between the two London sides for 19 years and while the Addicks are still feeling their way back into the second tier after consolidation on their return last season, the Hammers know anything less than a win may have some of the natives getting restless, even at this early stage.

Imps out to upset establishment

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since Lincoln City last prepared for a home game in what we now call the Championship.

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Sixty-six years is a long time to wait for anything, and many Imps fans must have thought they would never see the day when second-tier football returned to Sincil Bank.

With respect, when you are being trounced 4-0 at home by North Ferriby United in the FA Trophy in 2014, facing games on a level footing against the likes of West Ham, Southampton and Wolves are probably not at the forefront of your mind.

Two trips to non-league football since their last Championship outing will have sharpened the minds of any supporter getting ahead of themselves as they prepare to welcome Portsmouth on Saturday (12:30 BST), but without ambition that North Ferriby experience might have been a more regular occurrence.

The Tony Mowbray derby

Football is littered with great characters and popular one-club men but there cannot be many who can claim to be well liked wherever they go.

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Tony Mowbray is surely one of those select few as he prepares to pit his Blackburn Rovers side against Middlesbrough – the club where he made his name as a player before managing them for three years.

The 62-year-old, who has had to overcome bowel cancer, returned to Rovers for a second stint in June having previously led them to promotion from League One in 2017-18.

A 2-2 draw at Wolves last Friday was a more than decent start for Mowbray and for the visit of Boro (15:00 BST), he can expect a warm welcome from all four sides of Ewood Park.

“Everybody’s got us relegated – but that’s very good motivation for the team,” said Mowbray after the draw at Molineux.

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Keeping Blackburn away from trouble will only make him even more popular in that part of Lancashire.

Same division – different feelings

Having just been promoted from the National League South, Bromley finished 14th in the National League in the 2015-16 season.

That same year, Leicester City were upsetting the odds with their famous Premier League title win.

Such has been the rise of Andy Woodman’s Bromley, they can expect plenty more comparisons like that this season and, such has been the Foxes’ fall from grace, they will get similar.

While the Ravens are delighted to be in League One, Leicester are still rubbing the bruised ego which followed their disastrous relegation from the Championship on the back of demotion from the Premier League, amid various financial woes and points deductions.

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Now under Russell Martin, rather than opening their home campaign against Arsenal, Liverpool or even Brighton, it is Burton Albion who will make the short trip to the King Power Stadium (15:00 BST) and home fans will find Gary Bowyer’s side have little respect for reputations.

Bromley’s home opener against Cambridge United (15:00 BST) may well be a re-run between two promoted sides from last season, but the hosts have already served notice of their intentions with their 1-0 win at Barnsley last weekend.

Can Millers grind York bandwagon to a halt?

Rotherham United’s attempts to halt their slide started just three weeks after their descent into League Two with the appointment of former England boss Steve McClaren as their new head of football.

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The fact it then took a further six weeks to install a head coach in Alex Bruce has left them playing catch-up in terms of recruitment and readiness for the rough and tumble of fourth-tier football.

The Millers’ opening 2-1 defeat by Cheltenham Town means they have won only two of their past 19 league games so this might not be the best time to be welcoming a buoyant York City to south Yorkshire.

Despite a late change in boss, with Scott Lindsey replacing the title-winning Stuart Maynard barely a week before their first competitive fixture, hopes are high for a second successive promotion for the Minstermen.

Beating highly-fancied Bristol Rovers last weekend has only raised those expectations on the back of a summer of impressive transfer business.

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Six years ago, York were facing the likes of Farsley Celtic and Gloucester City in the National League North while Rotherham were in the Championship, beating Middlesbrough and Derby.

In the blink of an eye they are on equal ground and York’s ambitions could well see them overtake Rotherham, who need to stop the rot quickly.

BBC Sport will have live text coverage of all the weekend’s EFL action.

One of the UFC’s heavyweight mainstays and a former interim title challenger is set to re-sign with the promotion on an extended deal, but the fans are divided over the move.

In a recent post on X, combat sports journalist James Lynch revealed that Curtis Blaydes is set to re-sign with the world’s premier MMA organization on an eight-fight deal.

According to Lynch, the new contract will begin with a September 12 clash against heavyweight knockout threat Waldo Cortes-Acosta at Noche UFC.

Check out James Lynch’s announcement about Curtis Blaydes below:

The 35-year-old fighter from Naperville, Illinois, has been a fixture in the UFC heavyweight rankings for years. ‘Razor’ has notable wins over the likes of Alexander Volkov, Jailton Almeida, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and Alistair Overeem, among others.

Blaydes also challenged for the interim heavyweight title at UFC 304, losing to Tom Aspinall. He is 2-3 in his last five fights, most recently suffering a unanimous decision loss to Josh Hokit at UFC 327.

Blaydes is one of the best wrestlers in the 265-pound division and boasts an impressive collegiate record, highlighted by a gold medal-winning performance at the NJCAA Championships as a redshirt sophomore at Harper College.

His upcoming opponent, Cortes-Acosta, currently sits at No.7 in the UFC heavyweight rankings. He is 3-2 in his last five fights, most recently suffering a unanimous decision loss to Volkov at UFC 328. Known for his heavy hands, Cortes-Acosta was riding a three-fight knockout streak before his most recent loss.

When Dana White was impressed by Josh Hokit and Curtis Blaydes’ UFC 327 showings

Curtis Blaydes and Josh Hokit delivered a banger at UFC 327, racking up a combined 351 significant strikes in three rounds. While Blaydes came up short, the bout helped solidify Hokit as a legitimate heavyweight contender.

Despite the loss, Blaydes’ showing may have played a role in his new contract with the UFC. During the post-fight press conference at UFC 327, White praised Hokit while also lauding both fighters for their impressive performances, saying:

“Nothing but respect for both of those men tonight. That fight was unbelievable, and you won’t hear a word out of me about [Hokit] from here on out. He walked the talk. It’s one thing to have a shtick and act, whatever, and it’s another thing to go in a fight against the No.5 guy in the world, who’s a bad dude, and do what he did tonight.”