New Holland Cup 2023: Dubbo Rhinos will travel to CSU Bathurst to face the students on their Old Boy's Day

The Rhinos will hit the road to take on CSU Bathurst on Saturday in the New Holland Cup, a massive clash for several reasons.

Sandry has selected Lachie Toomey to make his debut after impressive in second grade and the latter will be thrown into the deep end as CSU celebrate their Old Boy's Day.

One of the more entertaining days on the New Holland Cup calendar, Sandry admitted he does enjoy being part of CSU's special event.

"It's a great day, Old Boy's Day at CSU is one of the great days in rugby I think," he said.

"We went up there last year at the same time, they had a huge crowd and there was a lot of banter, it was a good time and there was some great footy.

"It's close to the best day on the New Holland Cup calendar, it's a lot of fun."

The students are without a win so far this season, coming off a heavy 96-7 loss in their last match against Parkes.

The Rhinos will enter the match following a defeat as well, with Narromine getting the better of them at Apex Oval.

But regardless of how CSU is faring, Sandry knows they always seem to step things up for the big occasion.

"We went over there last year and they pulled our pants down," he said.

"Anything can happen on Old Boy's Day, we just need to be prepared and ready to go.

"We showed some improvements against Narromine last week but they were too good and got off to a quick start.

"We need to start quicker and we really need to make sure we focus on our defenced early on because it didn't happen against Narromine or Mudgee.

"The slow starts are killing us but let's hope this weekend we can rectify that."

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Toomey's debut will mean almost a quarter of the side will be representatives of the Colts team from 2021, a talented much which included the likes of Lachie O'Malley and Nick Barton, both of which have gone to Canberra to pursue higher honours.

As someone who has been involved with the club for some time now, Sandry believes it's a testament to the amount of work done in developing junior players which will lead to success for the Rhinos going forward.

"The big thing that we have got this weekend and it's really exciting is that five of our Colts boys from two years ago are playing first grade," he said.

"Without young blokes, the club goes nowhere.

"We are very excited to see what they can do."

"Jett Lane and Loni Langi have been playing first grade this year, they've done a great job as Ethan Smith.

"Alex Daley-Brown made his debut last weekend, now we will add Lachie Toomey to that list as well."

Janus Walford will start at five-eighth this week, having impressed his coach since joining the club.

Walford is one of the several players who Sandry believes are playing some great rugby at the moment.

"Dylan Hill has been playing great, he has had a few games now and is doing really well," he said.

"Cliffy Noks out in the centre is ultra-consistent, we missed his defence against Mudgee.

"His game against Narromine was terrific and now we need to get Dale Smith the space he needs to operate.

"He is the best fullback in the competition but we need to give him room to move."

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