Mid Western fly half Lachie Munro will captain the Northland rugby side to meet North Harbour in their first pre-season game at Arnold Rae Park in Kaitaia tomorrow.
Northland coach Bryce Woodward has shuffled a few things around in the line-up to cover several niggly injuries to players and has included
Mid Western halfback Adam Clarke for extra cover in the backs.
Clarke, who recently returned from playing club rugby in Germany, has already made his presence felt in the premier club competition with Mid Western.
His teammate Brook Gilmore is recovering from a groin strain but was cleared by the physio after an assessment yesterday to play a maximum of 30 minutes, from the bench.
"We will probably give him 20 minutes but we don't want him playing any longer than that. So we brought Adam in for a little bit of extra cover in the backs, because if we had an injury it could become an issue," Woodward said.
Northcote recruit Brock Mustard will start at centre, with Rene Ranger likely to miss much of the campaign on All Blacks duty.
Woodward said he may look to the Auckland unions for centre cover, depending on how tomorrow's game pans out.
"We will wait a couple of days to see if we need to look further - but we don't need anyone else there for Wednesday."
Woodward said preparations were going well and the side was looking forward to playing a rare match in Kaitaia.
The preseason game between Northland and North Harbour kicks off at 2.30pm.
Northland: 1 Justin Davies, 2 Mikaele Tuu'u, 3 Matt Wallis, 4 Roy Griffin, 5 Mark Burman, 6 Dean Budd, 7 Sam Barker, 8 Cam Goodhew, 9 Luke Hamilton, 10 Lachie Munro (c), 11 Iwi Hauraki, 12 Aaron Bancroft, 13 Brock Mustard, 14 Mateo Malupo, 15 Simon Munro.
Reserves: Tim Dow, Bronson Murray, Pat O'Connor, Cam Eyre, Ross Wright, Rhyan Caine, Aiden Dewes, Adam Clarke, Brooke Gilmore.
