Tamworth will be Lion-hunting at Quirindi Rugby Park on Saturday as they and Quirindi fight for Tier Two prominence.
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The two are leading the charge for the remaining spot in the finals and are viewing the clash as "must win", conceding that a loss will probably end their hopes.
"No disrespect to the other sides but if we don't beat these guys it will make it difficult," Magpies co-coach Mark Daley said.
They met only a couple of weeks ago with the Lions taking the points.
It has, especially for the Magpies, given them some food for thought over the last fortnight, having the bye last week.
"If we score points we need to then make sure our kick-offs go out and we exit our 22," Daley said.
"We can't afford to score points and then defend our line for 20 minutes."
Recalling what was a fairly see-sawing tussle, Daley said they were probably out-enthused last time.
For him, that will be one of the three areas that will decide it, along with whoever is the most effective at the breakdown and gives away the fewer penalties.
Lions co-coach Nick Rees said they would take in a lot of confidence from what was "a hard win" but at the same time were fully aware the Magpies would be intent on returning the favour.
"The Magpies will probably come out a bit harder tomorrow because we did beat them in the first round," Rees said.
They also have things they need to do better.
"Certainly we have to stiffen our defence in the backs," Rees said.
"They made a few inroads in the backs."
Particularly in the midfield they had a few issues, but hopefully they have sorted that out.
"The boys know what they did wrong," he said.
"They both tried to take the one bloke and bumped each other off."
They did get a pretty good defensive workout against Scone last week.
"For 60 per cent of the time we just defended," Rees said.
"We know once we get hold of the ball we can score points."
In the other game Gunnedah and Scone will be looking for their first wins of the second round when they clash at Gunnedah.