Tamworth will welcome a couple of key forwards back for their trip up the highway to tackle Armidale on Saturday.
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Darcy Barker and Harry Mills both come in after missing the Magpies' season opener against St Alberts, with Barker also to assume the captaincy after Blake Clout became a first round casualty.
In what was a double blow, the inside centre broke his thumb in the loss to Albies and is expected to be out for four-six weeks, Magpies coach Andrew Jack said.
A key cog in their backline, it is a big hole to fill.
"We're looking at different options," Jack said.
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Connor Robinson has been named at 12 for Saturday.
On a more positive note after struggling for numbers last week and only being able to field one men's side, they will be going up up with three sides - first and second grade men's, and women's.
They are still missing a few players to COVID, but, as Jack acknowledged, that is a scenario they're going to have to get used to.
"COVID will always be over our heads, we just have to adjust accordingly," he said.
Barker and Mills are arguably the two biggest ins. Jack said they will bring "stability to the scrums" and also "that aggressiveness we are looking for with our system".
He has got some "different ideas" for how to use them offensively, employing Mills in a wider role in attack in their trial against Brothers to good effect.
Jack was pretty happy with the Magpies' efforts last week but spoke about improving their consistency and maintaining their structure and discipline for longer.
"We played 40 minutes (last week).
"We've got to get past 40 minutes to make it 50 minutes, 60 minutes," he said.
They did get local development officer Paddy Bowen in this week to work on a few things.
"We were looking at the micro skills to be more efficient at the breakdown," Jack said.
More precisely be more effective at securing and retaining the ball.
He is expecting "a solid game", and said the Blues "can't be underestimated".
They are also searching for their first win after going down to Robb.
It will be the broadcast game with New England Rugby livestreaming one round a week. You can catch all the action from 1pm via this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ4d8fEoT0w
In the other game Albies host Barbarians.
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