IT’S that time of year in Coopers Far North Coast rugby union.

The time of year when every coach laments the large loss of players through injuries and illness.

When even after the second training run of the week, coaches are struggling to name a team for the weekend.

Wollongbar-Alstonville Pioneers coach Barry Carpenter is no exception.

At Tuesday’s training session none of his key players turned up as they were either injured or had the ’flu.

“It’s a bit of a toss-up who is going to be on deck,” Carpenter said.

“We are struggling to put a team together and be consistent because we have just had so many replacements.”

The Pioneers are likely to get halfback Michael Turnbull back this week, but have lost Lachlan Crockett for the season after he tore a tendon off his shoulder.

One player who has been a shining beacon for the Pioneers this season is the competition’s leading try-scorer, Josh Damen.

The youngster, who has just graduated from the Under-19s, added a hat-trick of tries against Southern Cross University last weekend and has taken his season’s total to nine.

“He’s picking them up playing outside centre at the moment, he’s doing really well, he concentrates and is keen on learning,” Carpenter said of Damen.

“He’s been very handy for us, he always does his best at training and he is just one of those kids that loves his footy.”

Wollongbar-Alstonville host the Lennox Head Trojans today at Lyle Park, Wollongbar.

And, as far as putting a team on the paddock, Trojans coach Paul Jeffery is in exactly the same boat as his counterpart at the Pioneers.

Lennox Head will be without several key players including loosehead prop Corey Windle, Adam Gordon and James Coventry, who are all missing through injury, and Sam Stewart and Matt Aherne, who are on NSW Country duty.

“Some of the bigger clubs, like Ballina and Lismore, are pretty sweet for numbers, but for Lennox and Wollongbar, we are not the biggest of clubs and we need all hands on deck and for them to do their bit to get the team over the line,” Jeffery said.

“While last week’s win (against Coolangatta-Tweed) gave us confidence, we are struggling for numbers and we’ve had a horrendous run of injuries so we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.

Wollongbar at Wollongbar is going to be a very tough game.”

In other games, Southern Cross Uni play City in the Lismore derby at SCU; Grafton host the Casino
Bulls; and the undefeated Ballina Seahorses travel to Cool-angatta-Tweed.

TEAMS

Coolangatta-Tweed: 1 Kurt Jacobs, 2 David Jacobs, 3 Dale Pene, 4 Vincent Latailakepa, 5 Mitch Planten, 6 Sonny Tahi, 7 Chris Luxton, 8 Luke Osberg-Bauer, 9 Joel Watego, 10 Nathan Walker, 11 Tereme Mio, 12 Ashley Mareroa, 13 Aaron Studdon, 14 Reece Itong, 15 Mark Robson.
Coach: Mark Iannelli.

Ballina: 1 Brent Horan, 2 Jacques Lotter, 3 Adam Thomas, 4 Chris Long, 5 Paul Woods, 6 Ben Rippon, 7 Michael Lord, 8 Brett McLennan, 9 Troy Nichols, 10 Kane Scott (c), 11 Matt Lloyd, 12, Ray Carriage, 13 Trent Gasnier, 14 Rick Randall, 15 Adam Fisher.
Coach: Andrew Grant-Frost.
 Referee: Rob Walker.

Wollongbar-Alstonville: 1 James Nunn, 2 Gavin Short, 3 Kent Sharman, 4 Matt Scott (c), 5 Scott Burgess, 6 Simon McVeigh, 7 Braeden Slattery, 8 Ryan Hamilton, 9 Gavin Short, 10 Arlo Cluff, 11 Josh Damen, 12 Tim Perkins, 13 Simon Porter, 14 Terry Murphy, 15 Adam Law.
Coach: Barry Carpenter.

Lennox Head: 1 Lachlan Stace, 2 Jamie Tredinnick, 3 Matthew Liddle, 4 Richard Jeffers, 5 Daniel Watt, 6 Luke Schaefer, 7 Harry Witt (c), 8 Jeff Wilson, 9 Dane Bellato, 10 Tony Buchanan, 11 Tom Sandstrom, 12 Nick Bordin, 13 Mathew Barnes, 14 Matthew Bindon, 15 James Barnes.
Coach: Paul Jeffery.
Referee: Steve Williamson. 
 
Grafton: 1 Chris Jackson (c), 2 Sean Austin, 3 Jason Robinson, 4 Matt Runge, 5 Nathan Cooper, 6 Ben Robertson, 7 Tim Landrigan, 8 Jono Speechley, 9 Brett Graham, 10 Brennan Farrell, 11 Simon Robertson, 12 Brad Lloyd, 13 Scott Lloyd, 14 John Morgan, 15 Sam Gerrard.
Coach: Scott Forwell.

Casino: 1 David Makejev, 2 Dave Cowan, 3 Craig Connolly (c), 4 Adam Bowen, 5 Casper Repko, 6 Todd Horsley, 7 Carl Tahatu, 8 Dave Schneider, 9 Luke Serone, 10 Nathan Quirk, 11 Cale Berry, 12 Michael Barnes, 13 Brok Doohan, 14 Wayne Dean, 15 Noam Dubart.
Coach: Mick Russell.
Referee: Graham Cook. 
 
Southern Cross University: 1 Joel McKenzie, 2 Peter Murphy, 3 Mick Clark, 4 Matt Want (c), 5 Chris Bush, 6 Jack Woods, 7 Martin Day, 8 Angus Gillespie, 9 Adam Condon, 10 Peato Lafeale, 11 Murray Wade, 12 James Jeffress, 13 Brett Gaukroger, 14 Daniel Proudman, 15 Will Latham.
Coach: John Jenkins.

Lismore City: 1 Keith Morris, 2 Stephen Prosser, 3 Matt Collins, 4 Matt Larsson, 5 Ray Taylor, 6 Heath Conlan, 7 Grant Little, 8 Glen Paisley (c), 9 Ben Felicioni, 10 Tim Birmingham, 11 Jim Bull, 12 Stephen Hughes, 13 Craig Jones, 14 Stephen Paisley, 15 Rory Richardson.
Coach: Ron Cox.
Referee: Mick Melino.