SUNDAY’S trial against Central North in Gunnedah was all about developing and learning for the New England opens, and getting a barometer for where they need to be ahead of their Richardson Shield tilt.
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It was their first run together and was a relatively promising start.
They always knew they were going to be up against it against a bigger and more experienced Kookaburras side.
“Our scrum was very good,” Lions assistant coach Sam Ditchfield said.
“What we’ve got to work on is our line speed in defence, our footwork into contact, our leg drive into contact and our support into contact.”
The Kookaburras got the better of them but Ditchfield thought they were pretty competitive across the park.
“They have a couple of class players who can control the game,” he said.
That was where one of the big differences was.
They had a few players unavailable but the coaching staff, headed by head coach Jason Lincoln, came away from Sunday with a better idea of where players might fit in.
There’s still a couple of areas they’d like to strengthen their numbers.
Sunday was their only trial but having the bulk of the squad based in Armidale means it’s not such an impost to get together and train.
For the Kookaburras, Sunday was pretty much it.
The next time they’ll get together will be the Friday before the championships.
They’ve drawn Newcastle first-up.
It will be a tough assignment but co-coach Hunter Harley is confident they’ve got the side to match them.
“We’ve got the best possible squad we could assemble,” Harley said.
He said Sunday had helped him and Tom Cullen finalise their 25.
“We’re definitely clear on what we want to start with,” he said.
“I’m definitely set on my backline.”
Walcha’s Simon Newton and Soni Halanukonuka will partner up in the centres in that lineup and combined well in the midfield on Sunday.
“You could see a lot of the Moree, Narrabri and Walcha combinations working well,” he said.
He also got a little bit out of the youngsters in the squad in Henri Knight and Jake Packer.
Knight showed his utility value, playing at nine, 12 and 15 while Packer had a run at five-eighth and on the wing.
Building on their earlier trial against Darling Downs, Harley was pretty happy with what he saw both in attack and defence.
“Our scrambling defence was really good,” he said.
“We seemed to take pride in our tryline.”
