The two sides squared off in the first round of last year's finals series with the eventual premiers scoring a gripping 26-20 victory in a contest that was played with grand final intensity,.

The round one clash is one of three scheduled meetings between the two sides as competition organisers made the decision to increase the schedule from two to three rounds after COVID-19 shortened the length of the draw in 2020.

On the back of a miraculous run to the grand final, Viv Paasi's Orange City Lions will also play the side they squared off against in the semi finals as Dubbo Kangaroos will visit Pride Park on the first Saturday of action.

Round out the three-game opening slate is a curious contest between Forbes and Cowra as the latter is returning to the competition after the pandemic forced it to pull the pin in the shadows of last winter's title race.

While many members of the competition took kindly to the smaller schedule last season, Central West Rugby Union CEO Matt Tink said the decision to re-boost the title race to 15 weeks was an easy one.

"Look, if you roll your ankle and are out for 3-4 weeks in a 10 round season, that's almost half the year gone," Tink said.

"It's the same with suspensions... it can be as much as a mistake in a tackle and you're out for a month."

Sides can usually expect to have a week off between the final round of the season and the first week of the finals but Tink's crew made a few changes, scheduling the week off between rounds 12 and 13.

"After getting some feedback from the players, they were all saying that they tend to be pretty worn down by that final round," he said.

"We've decided to make that week off a little bit earlier.

"If the players want to go skiing for a weekend, they can... if they want to go to Sydney and get on the cans, they can."

Footy fans at Orange will be looking for another date on the calendar and that's the grand final rematch.

The local derby is slated for round four as City will host Emus at Pride Park on Saturday May 8.

While Pete Bromley's men swept their cross-town rivals in 2020, the Lions progressively got closer and closer to upsetting Emus and will be confident they can create at least one boilover in the three-round season as well as finals.

Another exciting fixture is the round two clash between Bathurst Bulldogs and Dubbo Kangaroos as both sides would consider themselves unlucky to not reach the grand final last season.

Tink is still working to finalise the New Holland Agriculture Cup draw but preliminary plans suggest that competition will start two weeks prior to the premiere tournament and will finish earlier.

That will be a five-team competition.