The lone positive from the red and blacks' season-opening, 236-run loss was the fact they avoided an outright defeat, and a second-round trip to Bathurst to face fourth-placed Centennials Bulls doesn't look much simpler a prospect.

Centennials will be brimming with confidence after upsetting pre-season title favourites City Colts in round one and doing so reasonably convincingly, although they had some assistance from a juicy, rain-affected Morse Park wicket.

Even so the Bulls showed enough to suggest they won't be easybeats despite initially not nominating for the combined competition through fears of player shortage, while Centrals' improvement will need to be dramatic after nearly being bowled out twice in one afternoon.

The Bathurst Sportsground wicket is notoriously trickier than the Wade Park road they were routed on last weekend too, although some benefit of the doubt must be given considering it was the opening round of the summer.

In a big boost to the red and blacks' hopes former skipper Jake Pauletto comes back into the side for the second round, as does Nick Dunlop, one of the Orange association's leading run-scorers over the past decade or so.

All-round gun Fletcher Rose does miss this weekend's opening week though, a huge loss considering he was the side's best-performed bat in round one.

The opening day of Centrals' second-round trip to Bathurst starts at 1.30pm on Saturday afternoon.

In the weekend's other games CYMS and Kinross also travel to Bathurst, to face Rugby Union at Morse Park and City Colts at Loco Oval respectively.

Orange City host St Pat's Old Boys at Riawena Oval in a battle of the two associations' defending champions while Cavaliers takes on Bathurst City at Wade Park.