The New Zealand Warriors head into their third Auckland Nines tournament and will again be favourites despite falling short in the first two seasons of the concept.

While there will always be pressure on the Warriors in their own backyard and especially now with Shaun Johnson and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck in the side, Jono Wright says the team is relaxed and ready to entertain this weekend.

“The last few years the boys and the coaches have sort of gone overboard a bit,” Wright told Radio Sport NZ.

“There was a lot of pressure on the boys and they took it probably too seriously and this year we’ve kept it nice and relaxed.

“A lot of people expect the Warriors to do very well in this competition, and I don’t blame them, but this year they have just taken a step back and hopefully will just throw the ball around a bit more and keep it a bit more low-key during the build-up.”

Wright added that it was up to the entire squad to follow the lead of Coach Andrew McFadden and his staff.

“But again, you can have a star-studded line-up and still not perform, so it comes down to the whole squad buying into the coaching staff and what we want to achieve and how we’re going to play.”