Benn Reid and Blake Le Cornu are back in the side to face Tumut, having been sidelined by border restrictions during 2020.

Their inclusion gives the Steamers every chance to build on a strong start in the Southern Inland Rugby Union first grade, with three wins preceding last week's narrow loss at Griffith.

"Benny and Blake are both first-grade players and they've been sitting on the outskirts for a while," said coach James Kora.

"Blake's played more than 100 games for the club and he's going to return to the starting line-up for (the first time in) almost a year. Both of them bring a lot of experience into the back line.

"Those two boys live in Victoria so they couldn't play last year when COVID hit. They weren't allowed into NSW and if they were, they weren't allowed to travel outside Albury.

"They're itching at the bit to get the opportunity to stake a claim in the team."

Steamers may have seen its 100% record ended by Griffith last Saturday but Kora found plenty of positives in defeat.

"We had a lot of hurdles at the start of the game, lost a few players and we had to rejig the team but we hung in there right to the end," he said. "We lost some crucial balls at crucial times in the game but it was pleasing to come away from Griffith with not a huge loss.

"The first few games have been very pleasing. We're trying to build combinations and get a rhythm together and we're actually looking pretty good.

"I see heaps of potential here. There's more potential in the group than what I thought there was at the start of the year when we first got together. I was just aiming to make finals but now (I think we can aim higher)."

Steamers start the day four points behind leaders Wagga City, with Tumut sitting on eight points from its first two games.

"Tumut is a typical country team," said Kora. "They're going to be physical up front because they love dominating teams.

"But our guys coming in have been waiting their turn and they'll have a real crack this weekend."

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Kick-off is at 3.15pm.

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