The St George Illawarra Dragons and Newcastle Knights are racing to be ready for their opening round matches in Las Vegas, with a lot of time spent on selecting and developing their respective halves combinations.
Contributing to their preparations is the NRL's Pre-Season Challenge, where the two clubs will do battle in Week 1.
Dragons' fans will get their first look at the new halves pairing of Kyle Flanagan and Daniel Atkinson, with Shane Flanagan aiming to play a full-strength squad.
"I'm going to pick my team and not in relation to who we're playing or what sort of team the opposition is going to put out," Flanagan told NRL.com.
"We're going to Vegas, we have a new combination in the halves and some new forwards in our team.
"We'll play our best team in the first half of trial one and then about 20-30 minutes in trial two. We're hoping to get about 70-80 minutes over the two trials into what we're thinking is our best team."
As for their pre-season opponents, the Knights, coach Justin Holbrook is still yet to finalise who will pair Dylan Brown in the halves.
Fletcher Sharpe and Sandon Smith have been training next to Brown and are both expected to play alongside him during their pre-season clashes, allowing Holbrook to determine the best pairing.
"Dylan's definitely in the halves," Holbrook said.
"He's the one spot that's locked in there and then it's up to Sandon and Sharpie to grab the other spot.
Many believe Smith will get the nod, with his game management skills to compliment Brown's X-factor better than Sharpe's attacking style of play.
