AN away game against last season's grand finalists?
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It's not the friendliest of starts to the Woodbridge Cup season for the CSU Mungoes but they're keen to test themselves against the Oberon Tigers this Saturday.
![Lachlan Balcombe will be one to watch for CSU Mungoes in their new Woodbridge Cup campaign. Picture by Chris Seabrook. Lachlan Balcombe will be one to watch for CSU Mungoes in their new Woodbridge Cup campaign. Picture by Chris Seabrook.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/YpbCWLfGAstDHC22gJwdbm/ab39316a-bc9e-4228-9b25-ed316667d4e0.JPG/r384_379_1465_1027_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A uni side packed with plenty of new faces will need to gel quickly and bring their best right from the outset as they chase a round one upset.
The game also has a little extra meaning for the Mungoes co-captaincy duo of Ray Sargent and Ryan Thompson make a trip to their former club.
Sargent expects a great atmosphere at his old hunting ground of the Oberon Sports Ground.
"It's a bit of a homecoming for the pair of us, and I'm sure they'll like to give it to us down there," he said.
"They're a big side that loves to run straight through the middle, and I'm sure we're going to have a target on our heads but we're up for the action."
The Tigers come into the new season on the back of a 34-16 grand final loss to Woodbridge Cup powerhouse Manildra Rhinos, after they ended the regular season in fourth.
Both Oberon and CSU managed to get into last year's finals series after coming across from the New Era Cup competition.
They both showed that they were more than capable of making a statement in a new competition and Sargent wants that level to continue in 2023.
"It's their game to lose," he said of the opener with the Tigers.
"They've got the expectations on them, especially after the pre-season they've had with games under their belt with Workies and Panthers but we're up for the challenge.
"We want to out there and shock a few people this year."
The first step towards building towards a few of those surprises is getting a new-look team to generate big plays on both sides of the ball.
Mungoes did that just enough in 2022 to sneak into the finals series.
This time around they don't want to be scraping into the top eight conversation but inserting themselves strongly into that discussion.
"With that fifty-fifty split between new and returning players we're starting to mesh really well and find our strengths and weaknesses," Sargent said.
"Caleb Marsten in the middle is a big one to watch for Oberon at hooker. He's very quick and he likes to run out of marker and test As and Bs in the defensive line. Their big middles also have a big go forward, so we need to control that area.
"Ryan Thompson is a big gain for us, coming into our squad, and another one that I think not enough people are speaking about is Lachie Balcombe.
"He's played on the wing for us in the past few years but he's coming into the second row this year. He's a very big, fast and agile forward who I think will make a name for himself this year."
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