Orange City will be bolstered by the inclusion of five rugby league big guns in their season-opening Blowes Clothing Cup clash against Dubbo Kangaroos, with the late inclusion of former Lion Joey Lasagavibau a real boost for Viv Passi's men on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Hawks' stars Rakai Tuheke, Sia Nemani, Steven Widders and Eman Rodriguez will all make their Lions' debut after being named in Paasi's First XV to face the Roos at Pride Park.
The quartet arrived at Pride Park a touch less than a month ago and after impressing the coach throughout the pre-season have been rewarded for their efforts.
Lasagavibau, though, is an old face at the club.
He led the Lions to the 2015 grand final, where they ultimately fell to cross-town rivals Emus, and his inclusion in the centres for Saturday's clash on home soil will be a sight for sore City eyes after a dour couple of seasons up at Waratahs.
"They wouldn't get a first-grade jersey if they weren't up to scratch ... they've proved themselves," Paasi said.
"All of them have slotted in very well and it's made for a really good mix of talent at the club."
Widders has been named at fullback for the Lions, while Tuheke and Rodriguez will run out at inside centre and on the wing respectively.
While Nemani, a prop, will add some serious weight to the Lions scrum.
Throw the likes of Duncan Young, Harry Cooper and Tom Fenton into the mix and Passi believes he's got an extremely talented City roster, one the club hasn't seen in a number of years.
"It's really good to be able to pick the side that we have," he said ahead of what is a huge season-opener for the Lions against Roos.
"We're excited more than anything. We've got very good belief in what we've done and with the structures and the system."
City will need to play a cracking game to produce a boilover on Saturday and Paasi highlighted the keys to a winning result in round two.
"We want to start hard and fast and make sure we maintain that tempo throughout the whole game," he said, the Lions coming off a round one bye.
"We want to play a really good attacking brand of rugby and make sure there's a lot of steel in our defence as well."
Pride Park is the destination for a 3.15pm kick-off.
- ORANGE CITY: 1 Harry Cooper, 2 Darcy Holmes, 3 Sia Nemani, 4 Kieran Bonin, 5 Tom Fenton, 6 Duncan Young (c), 7 Tom Mencinsky, 8 AJ McNiven, 9 Tom Nell, 10 Keegan Harding, 11 Barton Young, 12 Rakai Tuheke, 13 Joe Lasagavibau, 14 Eman Rodriquez, 15 Steve Widders.
Want to keep up to date with Bathurst sport? Sign up to our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts here:
Jake Humphreys
Sports nut at the Central Western Daily.
Sports nut at the Central Western Daily.
