Junee has continued to bolster their premiership aspirations with two New Zealand players coming on board.
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Former Cootamundra halfback Dakota Ruta will return to Group Nine with the Diesels while they’ve also added forward Ritchie Herangi.
Ruta was at the Bulldogs when Junee president Simon Vanzanten was coaching the club.
He’s excited to see what the Kiwi can bring after a promising start to his short stint in 2016.
“He played at us for Coota for a while, we won a few games and then he had a massive head knock and went home,” Vanzanten said.
Herangi can play at either second row or lock.
He’ll be a big boost to the Diesels pack after previously playing Queensland Cup with Wynnum-Manly and has been part of the Warriors junior pathways.
At this stage American Joe Eichner is the only loss from the team who finished fourth last season.
Eichner has moved to Cairns while Timoci Vatubuli is back with the club after initially moving away after his father handed over the coaching role.
Ruta adds to a number of playmakers for Junee.
They’ve already brought back Tristan Dickson and also have captain-coach Trent Schubach, former captain-coach Matt Hands, Weissel Medal runner-up Hayden Diggins and star fullback Daniel Foley.
However Vanzanten wanted to have a specialist seven.
“We’re going to have to see where it all fits,” he said.
“We wanted to sign a genuine half as then we can play around with where Daniel Foley fits into the equation and whether he’s at fullback or somewhere else in the back line.
“We’re going to play around in the pre-season as Matt is getting an arthroscope (on Tuesday) and won’t be able to run for three or four weeks and won’t be available for the pre-season.
“Trent can play 13 as well and it gives us a bit of depth in the middle of the forwards.”
Centre could be the new position for Foley.
It comes after Junee has already announced Etuate Tagicakibau Bola as another new face after previously playing for Tumbarumba.
The Diesels are also looking to add another Fijian outside back to their ranks.
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