Knox fell just short in the final game of the season against Barker last year to finish second to their dear rivals.

A third of last year’s squad are back from last season though and take confidence into this weekend’s opening around on the back of a successful tour to New Zealand last month.

Overview with Cam Blades: 

“I think everyone is generally excited about the new competition format,” Knox coach Cam Blades told Rugby News. 

“It’s obviously been brewing for a while and everyone knew that we needed to find a new way forward in terms of the overall season structure and I think the new model that we’ve landed on, whilst it’s going to be new and challenging, it’s exciting and it’s good for the game. 

“Overall, I think last year was a really successful season. To get to the last game with a chance to win the premiership, it’s a good position to be in and although we fell a few points short against Barker, overall it was still a really successful season. 

“We toured New Zealand during the holidays. We took 46 boys and played six games over there on three match days against some really quality schools. Hopefully it puts us in a good position to start the season in a strong manner.”

2025 Squad: 

“We’ve got about a third of the squad rolling over from last year, which is positive. 

“Usually you expect to get a third to half of your squad back most seasons but this year’s group are very year 12 heavy and have gelled really well together because of that. 

“We had a lot of young year 11 players last year that played in the under 16s, so while those boys don’t have first XV experience, they are senior guys playing in their senior year and they are really looking forward to the challenge.”

What sort of rugby will we see from Knox this year? 

“I think we learnt a lot from the tenacity of the Kiwis, especially over the ball, while we were away over there,” the coach explained. 

“They are always competing for possession, which is obviously the nature of our game, but they just seem to do it better than we do. 

“We had to adapt to their style of play a little bit over there and generally we adapted pretty well so I think we’ll benefit from that this season.”

What can we expect across the competition?

“With CAS being a six team competition with five rounds, you’ve got to win pretty much every week,” Blades said. 

“We’re expecting each week to be a massive challenge and while obviously a few teams have been consistently at the top over the last few years, every match in this competition presents its own challenges and I don’t think this year will be any different. 

“It’s a five-game sprint and we’ve got to be really switched on week in, week out.

“We aren’t looking ahead to the second part of the competition against the ISA schools just yet. But the boys know if they perform well in the CAS competition, then they’ll earn the opportunity to play against some quality opposition in term three.”