Barker will look to continue their unbeaten start to the 2018 CAS season when they host St Aloyisius’ at Hornsby on Saturday afternoon.

After a strong preseason which included an impressive victory over GPS rivals Joeys, Barker opened their campaign with victories over Cranbrook and Trinity before the mid year break and after getting through the representative season relatively unscathed, will take plenty of confidence into the back end of the season.

“We’re developing in our performances and we seem to be building in each game which is pleasing so we’re really looking forward to getting stuck in to the next few weeks,” Barker coach Dean Hargreaves told Rugby News.

“I think we’ve played to our strengths as a team this year and our overall game is quite solid. All the players are very conscious of their roles and as a consequence of that, the team is working well together. We’ve got good clarity in terms of how we want to play this year, so everyone, including the reserves when they come on, know what they have to do around the field.

“We’ve got some very strong ball carriers who to this point, have been able to dominate the point of contact and get over the gain line, then our backs have been able to use their skills and pace to take advantage off the back of that.”

Led by Australian Schoolboys Billy Pollard, Luke Reimer, Lachlan Dring and David Tejcek, Hargreaves said he was impressed by the performances of his players in this month’s representative matches.

“We had 13 boys represent CAS, then seven play for NSW or Combined States at the Australian Championships and four picked in the extended Australian Schoolboys squad so we were really pleased to see those boys rewarded for a lot of hard work.”

But the coach said those players’ focus has now returned to the CAS season and a tough string of matches, starting this weekend against Aloys.

“We’ve just got to keep working hard and keep doing what we’re doing. We know that we can’t afford to become complacent because in such a tight competition, any side can beat you on their day. At the moment though, we’re just trying to play our next game better than we did our last.

“Aloys are a really skilful team and they move the ball around really well. They know how to take advantage of any defensive errors that you make and I think most importantly, they’ve got a very high work rate so it’s never an easy fixture.”

If Barker win on Saturday, they’ll face Knox and Waverley in the final two rounds for a chance to win the outright CAS premiership, something the school hasn’t done since they won back to back titles in 2012 and 2013.

“I think we learnt through our preseason matches that we just need to take things one week at a time and to be honest, we haven’t spoken about the matches to come yet,” Hargreaves said.

“The only thing we have spoken about is managing our training load around the HSC trials but outside of that, we’re 100% focussed on St Aloyisius’ this week.”

In the weekends other matches, Waverley will look to extend their unbeaten run when they travel to play neighbours Cranbrook and Knox host Trinity.

In GPS action, Kings can claim top spot on the ladder with a win over Shore, Scots and Riverview will battle for a spot in the top two and Joeys and Newington will both look for their first win of the season after disappointing opening round losses.