Southern Inland Rugby Union Country Redbacks manager Kris Dunstan doesn't expect his players’ skills to be too rusty for their showdown against the SIRU City Rams in Wagga on Saturday.
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The match is one of the curtain-raisers for the Super Rugby trial between the ACT Brumbies and the Otago Highlanders and will feature eight Griffith players.
Andries De Meyer, Daniel Dowson, Vaea Mateo, Matt Vitucci, Chris Latu, Harris Uin and Siti Tora were named in the original squad before Semisi Rogoyawa was called in to replace Cootamundra’s Bob Scott.
The Redbacks had their second and last training run last night, and Dunstan was expecting a polished hit-out after what the players produced in their first session a fortnight ago.
“It was really good, surprisingly. For a lot of the blokes it would’ve been the first time they picked up a football since late August, September last year,” Dunstan said.
“But you’d expect that being rep footballers.
“There are some very good players in the side.”
As well as Griffith, the Redbacks are made up of players from Tumut, Temora, Cootamundra, Hay, Leeton, Deniliquin and Young.
The Rams consist of footballers from Wagga Ag College, Wagga Waratahs, Wagga City, Albury, CSU and Junee.
If cool temperatures prevail, Dunstan expects both teams to play entertaining rugby.
“It’s set to be a big day,” he said.
“You don’t expect in late January to get 26, 27 degree days, but if we do, it should help the boys with their low fitness levels being the start of the season.”
As well as the Redbacks versus Rams game (4.50pm), SIRU City Women will take on SIRU Country Women (6.15pm) in a sevens clash.
An under 20s match between the Melbourne Rebels and Brumbies (3pm) will also be staged before the main game, which will kick off at 7pm.
More than 1500 tickets have been pre-sold for the trial at the Equex Centre, with organisers expecting a large walk-up crowd to attend the game.
