Ag College are looking to return to Southern Inland's top four despite heading into a clash with Tumut without their two chief playmakers.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Anthony Taylor will join Will Crawford on the sidelines after breaking his nose in the 41-5 loss to Wagga City last week.
Crawford also missed the loss to the unbeaten ladder leaders after being struck down by illness.
While initially thought to be tonsillitis, Ag College are now unsure of just how long Crawford will be sidelined for.
However coach Tom Lamond hopes Toby Haylock and Sam Nixon can use their combination from second grade to help Aggies back into a finals position at Beres Ellwood Oval on Saturday.
"Sam Nixon comes in and he's been doing a great job in second grade," Lamond said.
"He's been one of their key players so they will miss him but he'll definitely fit into first grade quite easily."
Alex Farquhar is also unavailable meaning Will Quirico comes straight back in after missing last week.
READ MORE
Wagga City were able to score a number of long-range tries to really hurt Ag College, who had been dictating possession.
Lamond is looking for a better defensive effort against the Bulls, who are one place below them on the ladder.
"It wasn't our best performance and City just capitalised on all our mistakes," he said.
"They scored two off mistakes, one was a charge down and one was an intercept, and we just couldn't come back from that.
"We lost all our structure trying to fight our way back and we just couldn't fight our way back.
"They made easy metres as we didn't make our tackles and we just weren't in the game at all unfortunately."
With Ag College being stripped of a win for having an unregistered player, the loss saw them fall out of the top four and behind Albury on points differential.
Lamond is looking for them to hit back quickly.
"We want to get the same wins in round two as we did in round one while Griffith at home is hopefully a good chance for us as you never know what you are going to get with those boys," he said.
"If we can get a top four finish then anything can happen."
Meanwhile Wagga City are out to extend their winning run when they tackle CSU at Conolly Rugby Complex on Saturday.
CSU will come in fresh after having the bye last week, and forfeiting their second grade clash to Leeton.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Download our app from the Apple Store or Google Play
- Bookmark dailyadvertiser.com.au
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters