Last year: 5th (57pts)

Gains: Rodney Iona (Brumbies), George Amosa (Melbourne), John Mokofisi (Sydney Uni).

Loses: Boyd Killingworth (Aussie 7s), Sam Ward (Italy), Wayne Borsack (Spain), James Cunningham (Hong Kong), Rory O’Connor (Ireland), Junior Palau (Manly).

Overview – with Greg Marr

“It has been a really great preseason, I’ve got to say. We’ve got a lot of new faces at the club and a lot of guys that have come back. The colts have really good numbers. Last year we struggled but last week we had enough for three and a half teams for our trial. We’ve obviously lost a fair few quality players, but we’ve got a bunch of guys that have come through our colts system in the last few years that are ready to step up to first grade.

“It’s great to see our guys taking opportunities to play overseas and that also gives opportunities for other guys to come into the higher grades and fill the void. There is a really good vibe around the club and players can now see the pathway from colts through to first grade and I think that is really important.”

Improvements

“We’ve focussed on refining our attack and giving it the variety that it needs. We want to improve our defensive structure and line speed and at the moment we are looking at recycling the ball quicker. We play a better game of rugby if we play up tempo, so if we are getting slow ball from the rucks, it tends to dampen that ability to play up tempo.”

Player(s) to watch

“Young George Amosa has been pretty impressive since he joined us. He is only young but he has a great physical presence and I think he’ll do really well up front. Then we’ve got the old guys like Ben Adams and Sam Crompton. Sam has had a great off season, he looks like he’s been in a bodybuilding contest so I think he’ll add a lot of grunt and muscle to the back row in Boyd Killingworth’s absence.”

Hopes/Expectations

“We always aim to win the competition, that’s obvious. The last few years we have finished around fifth, so I’d be pretty disappointed if we go backwards and I’d like to go better again. Some of the guys have been saying that we have been together for long enough now and it’s time that we stepped up and took it to the next level. Yes, we’ve been reasonably successful, but we haven’t taken it to that next level and this year we will be aiming to do that.”