Even by their own admission the Blue Bulls have had their fair share of problems during their preparations.

They have been missing several key players from the outset and they lost trials to the Canberra Royals, 45-12, and the Canberra Vikings, 48-27.

Their proposed trial against the Penrith Emus last week fell through because Central West weren’t able to field a side.

Instead a makeshift Bulls side took part in the Orange City 10s last weekend and suffered an embarrassing 17-10 loss to the Orange Emus before getting wins against the Rhinos All Blacks and Orange City (2), before going on to win the plate final 57-17.

Despite all of that, coach Mick Gray is eager to forget the pre-season an concentrate on the only game that matters at the moment.

“We are quietly confident. The mood of the squad is very good at the moment,” he said.

“We’ve been talked down a bit and things probably haven’t gone our way in the pre-season, we would have liked to have won all our games and been able to field our full-strength squad but we just have to put all that behind us. We know we have to win this game, that’s all that matters. A win keeps us alive in the Caldwell Cup, while if we lose we drop into the secondary competition.

“If it (a win) doesn’t happen, we know that we weren’t good enough but we certainly think we are capable of winning.”

Western Plains will be a formidable opponent and Gray knows his side will need to aim up if they are to be any chance.

“They’re obviously a good team to be playing in the Country Championships and they are generally an old-fashioned, good, hard team,” the coach said.

However, working in the favour of Central West, tonight represents the first time the Blue Bulls have had access to a full-strength side and the coach is excited to finally have the team he wanted.

“We have five guys who have played Country and half of the squad played for Central West last year. They should combine nicely with the new players that have come into the side,” he said.

“We trained well (on Wednesday night) as a squad and that’s a very positive sign. The morale is good in the team and that’s the best we have to go on.”

❏ CENTRAL WEST BLUE BULLS: 1 Chris Plunkett, 2 Alex Weal, 3 John Ellis, 4 Nick Hughes-Clapp, 5 Scott Francis, 6 Lachie McCutcheon, 7 Josh Tremain, 8 Hayden Tidswell, 9 Tom Hollis, 10 John Rathbone, 11 Dan Cullinane, 12 Luke Harding, 13 Ben Mills, 14 Dan Muldoon, 15 Michael Garvey. Bench: 16 John Gander, 17 Hiram Brooke, 18 Peter Friend, 19 Andrew Selwood, 20 Will Stewart, 21 John Palmer, 22 Scott Johnston, 23 Dom Longhurst, 24 Ben Bright.