Tony Woolnough knows the Western Rams have a tough opening match this weekend

St Pat's duo Caleb Gunning and Regan Stait will line up in the front row as the Rams aim for Country Championships glory, while fellow Saint Riley Hancock has been named on the bench.

The Rams will start their campaign with a tough match, but Woolnough is confident the side can produce a good effort.

"It's a hard one first up playing the Illawarra Dragons at their home ground but yeah I'm pretty excited," he said.

"We've got a good bunch of kids and we've had limited time to prepare for obvious reasons.

"Everything has been going smoothly, we had a camp on the weekend in Warren and finished everything off so it should be good."

READ MORE: Western Rams coach Cameron Greenhalgh keen for success in 2022

READ MORE: Bathurst Panthers begin their pre-season training for season 2022

READ MORE: Bolam, Fitzpatrick and Brien to play for St Pat's during 2022

While Woolnough admitted it always tough to leave players out of the starting 17, the Rams mentor knows it has been tougher in previous years due squad sizes.

"Very hard, there is some good players who missed out," he said.

"But it's probably been a little bit easier than in previous years because we've picked squads of 40 to start with but this year we only picked 25."

Due to COVID-19 Woolnough said it was difficult to get the entire squad together even at their camp in Warren over the past weekend but the coach knows they have done enough work to get the job done against the Dragons.

"It's been very tough to get together," he said.

"Even on the weekend it was tough, there were a few kids missing.

"COVID has caused havoc but we had a good hit out on the weekend and just finishing everything off."

With the Andrew Johns Cup only lasting five rounds, every game is extremely important and Woolnough knows from previously how vital is to get off to a strong start.

"To get off to a good start would be good," he said.

"Illawarra in Illawarra, I don't think it gets much tougher. It'll be a good test straight up for our team but I'm pretty confident."

Following the Andrew Johns Cup match, the Western Rams under 18s will also start their Laurie Daley Cup season also against the Illawarra Dragons.

That side includes Bathurst Panthers trio Tallis Tobin, Tom Lemmich and Jackson Carter as well as St Pat's Ryan Small.

The Andrew Johns Cup match will kick-off at 10am on Saturday morning with the Laurie Daley Cup match the follow at Ron Costello Oval in Shellharbour.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: