PESKY Warrington veteran Lee Briers wants to make sure South Sydney rookies Adam Reynolds and Ryan Carr bomb their opening audition for the No.7 jumper tomorrow night.
The only talking point among passionate Rabbitohs fans all off-season has been on little-known Reynolds and Carr and who will win the race to be starting halfback.
Reynolds and Carr will start in the halves for tomorrow's Return to Redfern against Warrington, both desperate to impress new Souths coach Michael Maguire.
Yet Briers - the niggling Warrington half who has spent more than 15 years in the English Super League - has absolutely no intentions of going easy on his baby-faced opposites.
"What do you think?" Briers said yesterday.
Rookie half: South Sydney coach Michael Maguire talks to Ryan Carr. Picture: Gregg Porteous Source: The Daily Telegraph
s Source: The Daily Telegraph"Not at all. This is our final trial game and hopefully we can cap off three great weeks of pre-season training (in Australia).
"I know when we trained at Souths the other day, I did a bit of running with Reynolds. He was beside me and with his young legs he just took off.
"They'll want to put their authority on the game, and this is their chance to impress their coach in the fight for the halfback positions after they lost Chris Sandow.
"I watched Chris a few times and liked his attitude. He was cheeky, and you need that to play halfback.
"But I'm sure these other two won't be overawed."
Reynolds, 21, spent most of last year on the sidelines because of a knee complaint. He spent yesterday training in the rain along side 23-year-old Carr, who ran around in the Queensland Cup last year.
New coach Maguire is happy to give both players first shot at succeeding Sandow, with Dylan Farrell to also get his chance during the trials.
Senior Rabbitohs players who will run on to Redfern with Reynolds and Carr tomorrow night had plenty of faith either player would do the No.7 jumper justice. They also expected Warrington to give them little peace, even though it a summer trial.
"They'll obviously go for Reynolds and Carr and the other younger blokes, but it's up to us older guys to look after them," Dave Tyrrell said.Chris McQueen said: "Chris (Sandow) is a big loss, he was one of our key players last year, but the young guys coming through will step up. Both (Reynolds and Carr) are very enthusiastic and very good players."
Versatile forward Jason Clark added: "They're both great blokes in general, they can definitely kick and throw the ball and have some good talk on the field.
"But the pressure isn't just on the halfback. the pressure is from wing to wing and we all have a job to do."
