Newcastle Knights v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs
Date: Saturday, May 19
Kick-off: 4pm
Venue: Belmore Sports Ground
Team
1. Tex Hoy, 2. Garry Anderson, 3. Starford To'a, 4. Ofa Manuofetoa, 5. Justin Worley, 6. Nash Birch, 7. Hayden Loughrey, 8. Matt Croker, 9. Matthew Moon, 10. Jirah Momoisea, 11. Kurtis Dark, 12. Beau Fermor, 13. Brandon Russell. Interchange. 14. Tevita Alifa, 15. Joe Bromage, 16. Kye Hopwood, 17. Jack Cameron.
The nib Newcastle Knights Jersey Flegg squad has enjoyed a two-week break from the competition and are back this Saturday hoping to continue their impressive winning record against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
Coach Todd Lowrie has a new-look team to work with this week with the versatile Tex Hoy stepping up to the fullback role in the absence of Matt Cooper.
Starford To'a has finished his season with the Under 18s SG Ball side and has got an instant call-up, named in the centres this week for his Under 20s debut.
That will be alongside Kye Hopwood and Jack Cameron on the bench, who also make their first Jersey Flegg appearances.
"Tex has played a number of games with us already this year and he's quite capable at fullback," said Lowrie.
"Star had some really good games in the Under 18s this year and was one of their best players consistently, so he's come up to join our squad and he gets an opportunity probably earlier than anyone expected just through a few injuries.
"Hopefully he'll be able to bring that form in to our team and then we've got a couple of guys on the bench who are also playing their first game that have been part of our squad all year and certainly know what's going on.
"We've got about six or eight SG Ball players that have stepped up to our squad so how many of them play I'm not too sure, we'll just have to wait and see."
The Under 20s coach knows the Bulldogs, who are sitting in fourth place, will be a big challenge on Saturday.
"They're a big side particularly through their middle and they always seem to have a big side," Lowrie explained.
'They're going quite well so it will be our biggest challenge for a while and it will be good to see how we're travelling and how we're going after the break," he said.
"It will be a good day too because there are three Jersey Flegg games in a row at Belmore.
"There'll be another five teams in the competition who'll be watching on to see how everyone plays so it should be a good challenge."
