Coach banking on senior men to inspire young Roos

Rainima is overseeing a rebuild at Walters Park. The former Wildfires lower-grade coach has tapped into his Pacific Island network to help foster the young players coming through at Lake Macquarie.

Apart from a 113-0 humiliation against Wanderers when Lake Macquarie had eight players out with illness, the Roos have been competitive in every match.

They make the trip to Calland Field on Saturday to tackle Southern Beaches, who sit one place above the cellar dwellers on the table.

Viliamu, Polamalu and Solofutu are likely to play off the bench.

"Kenny and Tevita were inspirational to our young players when they came on in the second half last week against third-placed Nelson Bay," Rainima said. "They held their lines and Kenny was an extra go-forward player for us. We are blessed to have those two and and also Marlon Solofuti and a few more experienced players still making their way from thirds and seconds. With their experience, our younger players will keep working hard to keep raising their standards.

"Rugby is a game of 80 minutes. For us winning starts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturday is about celebrating the little wins throughout the week.

"If we were to look back since round one, we've come a long way. Our short fall is of our own making; we've taken ownership of that and we'll keep moving our standards up from the previous week."

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Rainima is awaiting the arrival of a prop from Fiji and another from New Zealand, which will improve their scrum.

"We're just starting to put some emphasis on our set piece now," he said. "Our scrums have been a challenge but that can be fixed on the scrum machine. Our lineout has been awesome, which it comes from our players buying into our set piece calls."

Southern Beaches did some soul searching after the 36-21 loss to University. Their lone win in four matches was a dour 7-6 victory against Singleton .

"We have worked our arses off the past few wees and haven't received results. It has been really difficult," coach Adam Dubois said. "I was pretty emotional after Saturday's loss. It was a tough loss.

"It was 10-7 at half-time. I said we have them in deep water, let's keep them there. The vibe was really strong. Then Uni scored straight after half-time. Dane Sherratt (Uni fly-half) had it on a string. We have a few changes this week and hopefully we can get on the front foot."

Kiwi lock Lucas Rosewall starts after returning from a shoulder injury off the bench against the Students and former NSW Country fly-half Rob Richardson comes in for Mark Butler

"We have a strict game plan to follow this week," Dubois said. "We are comfortable in the grind and that is where we are going to stay.

"We are stinging as a club and want to come away with three wins. That is the only pass mark."

Elsewhere Saturday, Merewether host University, Nelson Bay are at home to Maitland and Wanderers are away to Singleton.

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