New Zealand Warriors coach Ivan Cleary hopes his team can get the Christchurch crowd behind them as they try to improve an awful NRL record at New Zealand venues outside Auckland.

In 11 NRL games in New Zealand away from Mt Smart Stadium the Warriors have been restricted to just one win and one draw, a record they are hoping to improve on when they take on the Sydney Roosters in Christchurch on Sunday.

Cleary prefers to take an optimistic view, noting that the most recent of those results was a good one.

"I think we won the last one though, against the Wests Tigers," Cleary said - a 26-10 victory in March, 2006.

"Last time we played down there at AMI Stadium we won the game so that record doesn't have any bearing and it's four years since we played anywhere else. It's water under the bridge."

The match is officially a home game for the Roosters but Cleary said he hoped Cantabrian loyalties would for once be with an Auckland-based team.

"I'd like to think a lot of the crowd down there will be supporting our team. I know if we play well they'll support us," he said.

"We'll be looking to get as many people onside as we can. Personally I much prefer to play down there than go over to Sydney."

Cleary said he hoped the potentially colder weather of Christchurch would suit the Warriors better than Sydney.

The injury-hit Warriors will for once head into an NRL match with an unchanged team from that which beat the Newcastle Knights at their last outing.

Cleary said it didn't look like first-choice halfback Brett Seymour, who is out with a leg fracture, would be back for another couple of weeks.

"We've got to wait and see how well it's knitting. It's not as quick as we would like," he said.

"But to have at least all the guys we had last week back on deck, it's a nice change. It's the first time that's happened for a while."

Seymour's injury means another chance for 21-year-old Isaac John, who impressed at halfback against Newcastle.

The Warriors sit in 10th place on the NRL table, four places but only two points behind the Roosters.

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