A refreshed Orange Hawks will head to Cowra’s Sid Kallas Oval gunning for a second straight win on Sunday afternoon, at the expense of the Magpies.
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The Group 10 premier league round eight fixture is a must-win game for the two sides, sitting fifth and sixth respectively.
Not just because of their standings on the table either.
For Hawks, Sunday’s game is the first of four away fixtures the two blues have in the next six rounds.
For Cowra the story is similar, the Magpies have just two home games for the rest of the season after this weekend’s clash with Hawks.
Crucially though, the two blues are coming off an excellent win over Lithgow Workies before the bye and all of their next six games are match-ups Hawks captain-coach Willie Heta will view as winnable.
Although, the last of those is a road trip to Bathurst to play Panthers, who handed Hawks a 72-12 shellacking earlier this season.
Cowra captain-coach Rory Brien has already identified how big a game this one really is, especially considering the Magpies have the bye next up.
“We’re coming into a bye as well so it’s a four point game for us,” Brien said.
“We need to win this because we hit the road after this.”
For Cowra, Rick Nobes began at five-eighth in the absence of Warren Williams last weekend but is expected to return to his original role as an interchange player, and be introduced at hooker about 20 minutes into the first half.
Cameron Picker will shuffle to five-eighth with Williams remaining sidelined.
Brett Morgan is out for Hawks, with Jack Middleton taking his spot in the back row. Kick off is scheduled for 2.30pm.
- ORANGE HAWKS: 1 Jedd Kennedy, 2 Jordan Baker, 3 Jack Aumuller, 4 Sione Tongia, 5 Viane Falaniko, 6 Willie Heta, 7 Bobbie Brown, 8 Krus Robinson, 9 Jake Blimka, 10 Sia Nemani, 11 Jack Middleton, 12 Ethan McKellar, 13 Nathan Potts; Bench: 14 Sam Coyte, 15 Glen Maxwell, 16 Nick Wilson, 17 Todd Morrissey