Fresh from scoring his first NRL try for the Newcastle Knights and a perfect goal kicking performance, Mason Lino will remain in the halves and take on his former club the New Zealand Warriors.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Knights five-eighth will face off against the Warriors for the first time at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday having arrived in Newcastle from the New Zealand outfit this season.
"It will be fun," Lino said after training in Newcastle on Tuesday.
"I've got some really good friends there and I've been talking to them the last few weeks hoping I get a chance against them.
"Now I do and I'm excited for it. Hopefully they don't go too hard on me."
However, Lino doesn't expect to provide the Knights with too much inside information about the Warriors ahead of the round 16 encounter.
"Probably not too much [insight] because they've changed a lot of assistant coaches and the way they are playing this year is a bit different," he said.
"But for us it's focusing on what we do best, playing our style of football and hopefully we can get the two points from that."
In his 21st NRL game and fourth for the Knights in 2019, Lino nabbed his own four pointer in Saturday's second half against Brisbane after backing up centre Jesse Ramien from a pass he delivered.
"It was pretty cool and hearing the crowd scream was pretty emotional," he said.
He also converted all five kicks at goal as the fifth-placed Knights beat the Broncos 26-12 in Newcastle.