The reigning premiers were defeated comprehensively by the Waratahs at home last weekend, but coach Mick Raynes is confident the side will bounce back despite their depth being seriously tested.

Experienced hand Blake le Cornu headlines a lengthy injury list, one of a total of 11 changes Raynes was forced to make to the side that went down by 62-points last weekend.

“It's going to be a tough one, there's no doubt about that,” he said.

“We've been knocked around by injuries in a big way.

“We'll have a total of 11 players, some who came up from the reserves, out through either injury or unavailability.”

Missing fly-half Le Cornu for two to three weeks was far from idea, but Raynes said he was using it as an opportunity to stir the side's fringe players into action.

“I've told them to come back to me this time next week with a problem,” he said.

“The onus is a little bit on them this week, and I have full belief that the players coming into the side can do a job.

“I want to have selection dilemmas. 

“I don't want to be walking guys back into the team when they come back from injury.”

Though there's plenty of rain forecast around the region for the weekend, Raynes predicted a high-level of play from the Phantoms.

“We won't be complaining about a bit of rain,” he said.

“But I don't think it'll have that much of an effect, you could play in three inches of rain out there and it'll still be fairly dry rugby.

“We have to try and limit Leeton's ball-running, they're got a few guys who can pull off a bit of fancy footwork.

“If we're able to put a stop to that and make the game a bit of a scrap, then we're every chance.”

Raynes said the club wasn't far away from shrugging off their lacklustre start to the season.

“By half-time last week half of our backline was sitting on the bench,” he said.

“Hopefully we can avoid that situation this week, because we can definitely match it with Leeton.

“In all three games we've played there have been time where we've been really competitive.

“In the first two games we had opportunities to win the game in the dying stages.

“They guys coming in have got a good amount of experience, I’m confident they're up to the task.”