ENGLISH international Georgia Roche will make NRLW debut for the Newcastle Knights after being named to play five-eighth against Parramatta on Sunday.
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One of Newcastle's main off-season recruits, signing on for five years, Roche has replaced Caitlin Moran in the halves after the side's 31-20 loss to the Cowboys at the weekend.
The 22-year-old will play her first game for the club little more than a month after arriving from the north of England.
A strong ball-runner with speed to match, the highly-fancied prospect starts alongside teenage halfback Jesse Southwell at CommBank Stadium.
![Georgia Roche. Picture by Marina Neil Georgia Roche. Picture by Marina Neil](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/max.mckinney/974884c0-c80a-43d5-bfb3-c3ea2945a1f9.jpg/r0_0_5717_3888_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Moran has been dropped from the 22-player match squad entirely.
Knights coach Ronald Griffiths had mooted Roche's likely inclusion by round three in recent weeks.
Griffiths also named skipper Hannah Southwell to start at lock as he said he would after Sunday's loss.
The coach was left less than impressed with his side's performance against the Cowboys, saying he liked "very little" about it and suggesting a lack of team-first efforts.
Speaking on Tuesday Southwell, who has missed Newcastle's first two games, said while her teammates had played well in periods of the match they just weren't consistent enough.
"I thought it was good in patches, definitely," Southwell said.
"In both halves I think we started really well, so there's definitely glimpses of things we can take out of that and acknowledge that were really good.
"But obviously there's a few things that we need to work on."
New Zealand international Laishon Albert-Jones will also return via the bench after missing round two due to a mandatory concussion stand-down.
Meanwhile, Newcastle's NRL side remains unchanged from the 28-6 win over Canberra on Saturday.
Newcastle face the Dolphins in Perth on Saturday as part of a double-header also featuring South Sydney and Cronulla's clash.
Prop Daniel Saifiti remains sidelined with injury and won't make the trip to the west coast.
Mid-season recruit and former North Sydney Bears NSW Cup player Dane Aukafolau in the extended match squad for the first time, although it's unclear if any other forward is in doubt for the match.