Bowral Blacks halves combination is set for a baptism of fire when they face league leaders Avondale on Saturday.
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The Blacks went down 29-7 against Shoalhaven last week but the real damage was in the aftermath with fullback Ryan Knight ruled out for the season with a knee injury and halfback Tom Keft additionally set to miss a week.
Taking the latter's place in the number nine jersey will be youngster Liam Clunn in what will be just his second first grade appearance and the first alongside flyhalf Lachy Huntington, who only recently returned from injury himself.
Despite the upheaval coach Greg Muum said he was looking forward to seeing how the new combinations develop.
"He's [Keft] only out for a week so it's not too bad but we're still struggling to get back-to-back weeks with a 9-10-12 combination so that will be a challenge again," Mumm said.
"Bringing in a young halfback, Liam Clunn, this will only be his second first grade game. He's first year out of school so it will be a big step-up for him but it will be the first game that he and Lachy have played together so hopefully that combination can gel quickly.
"We unfortunately lost our fullback Ryan Knight for the season with a knee injury so there will be a few changes in the backline and we'll see whether we can rise to the challenge."
Avondale sit unbeaten at the top of the Illawarra First Grade ladder and are perennial challengers, having won three of the past five premierships.
Bowral meanwhile find themselves in sixth position but well within touching distance of the top four. Muum said he was looking for his side to just work on doing the basics well in the face of a physical Avondale pack.
"So far this year when we've come up against the top teams we've been slightly off the pace so we've gone back to just doing the basics well and we're working a bit harder on our fitness so hopefully those things start to show up in our games," Mumm said.
"They're a very physical team and they can rattle you by trying to intimidate you and so the hard bit for most teams is not going into their shell or changing the way they play because of the fact you get whacked a few times.
"For us it's really about having the work ethic to support our ball carrier so even if we do get hit hard in tackles we have enough numbers there to keep playing our game.
"They're also a fairly good attacking team so the one thing that's probably a little bit different is we've just got to be careful where we kick the ball. If we kick the ball away without really putting a good chase on it they've got some really talented players who can hurt you from counter-attacks."
Illawarra Rugby Union First Grade Round 1 (washed out fixture)
Avondale vs Bowral Blacks
3:15pm Saturday, 8 May @ Avondale Rugby Club
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