The UC Vikings' task to rebound from a shock thrashing at home will be made all the harder, with their Wallabies additions out of the picture for their grand final rematch against Brisbane City.
The Vikings were one of the favourites heading into the 2016 Buildcorp NRC season after making last year's final, but suffered a major setback with a 60-28 loss to the competition surprise packets, NSW Country Eagles last year.
Henry Speight, Rory Arnold and Allan Alaalatoa all played in that loss but were named in Michael Cheika's for this weekend's Wallabies Test against the Springboks.
Vikings captain Jarrad Butler said he had faith the Vikings could turn things around this week.
"Guys were obviously really disappointed with how it worked, how it kind of panned out but in saying that we're not going to dwell on it too much and kind of look forward and hopefully put in a better performance this week," Butler said.
"It's so good for Rory, Henry and Allan and a couple of other guys to get the call up back into camp.
"To have them down last week and Henry the week before as well is invaluable and I think they're really great for the group when they're here but obviously to be a part of that Wallabies group is pretty special and they'll do great.
One man who will be looking to stand out with Speight out of contention is former Australian Schoolboys back Andrew Robinson, currently plying his trade with Tuggeranong.
Robinson scored two tries off the bench for the Vikings on Sunday and with Speight now in Wallabies camp the winger could find himself propelled into a starting spot this weekend.
" Hopefully I can really get my foot in the door there, but I know there's a lot of other boys really pushing for spots especially Eli Sinoti who's been performing really well at training so there's a lot of boys hot on that trail too," he said.
The Vikings play Brisbane City at Ballymore Stadium at 1pm Sunday.
