Damian Reti is slated for his first appearance for Pirates this season, and will co-coach Mick Squires hopes provide some starch to the defence as they look to bounce back from a disappointing last round loss, against Inverell on Saturday.
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They will also welcome back some punch off the bench with Andrew Collins and Brendan Rixon named on the bench after missing the Moree game.
Reti comes in at outside centre in one of three changes to the backline with Sam Collett pushing out to the wing while Jackson Sharpe returns at half-back.
"Very happy to have him back," Squires said of Reti.
"We think he'll stiffen up the defence, which is needed after last week."
It is though, as he pointed out, only his first hit-out for the year.
"He was right to go for round one, just had a niggling injury that happened at training on the Tuesday so we sat him out for Quirindi," Squires said.
He was then unavailable for the Bulls.
The defending premiers have had a fair bit to work on this week, but from Squires' perspective the biggest change probably needs to come in their attitude. As co-coach Doug Biffin commented in his assessment they "didn't really turn up".
"This week we gave them a pretty solid session on Tuesday to readjust their attitude," Squires said.
"Last night (Thursday) was really good. They still had some mistakes but you could see the intent again."
"The good thing about footy is it's on against next week; they're pretty keen for tomorrow."
"Those inclusions will help with our attitude and how we apply ourselves to a few things."
Defence is one of those 'things', and will be a big focus, after conceding 40 points against the Bulls.
"It's been a bit of a common theme over the last few years that when the attitude is not there we get 40 points put on us," Squires said, adding that they "don't want to go through those two/three losses-in-a-row scenarios" as they have the last couple of seasons.
The lineout was also an issue for them. Squires attributed that in part to a bit of a miss communication.
"You've got a guy throwing whose English isn't that great," he said, referring to hooker Jiojo Cakacaka.
The vocal Moree crowd wouldn't have helped.
"We probably took it for granted (against Quirindi) because he threw really well," he said.
He said they done a lot of lineout work this week and just "tried to put a lot of confidence in him".
They are anticipating a tough contest with the Highlanders convincingly beating the Bulls in the first round. They also almost rumbled them in the corresponding game last season, missing a last minute conversion to fall one short.
Elsewhere Narrabri are are home to Quirindi, Moree travel to Walcha and Gunnedah finally kick off their campaign, hosting Scone.
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