The second game of the new MSIRL season will kick off Saturday afternoon as the Charlotte Tigers take on the East Cobb Trojans.

Formerly the Lassiter Trojans, East Cobb changed its name this season after winning the Georgia state title as Lassiter last season.

"With this season in the MSIRL we will be up against some great clubs and hope to show we belong in this league setup," said Head Coach Randall Joseph.

The Trojans gradated 12 started from last season, with seven now playing college rugby. But they return some starters and have some talented new recruits.

"We are still working on our structures and have a lot of new players," said Josepoh. "Our inexperience will be evident in this first match and will give us a pathway for future work-ons for the upcoming games."

Prop Muhammed Abdullah is a serious USA U20 contender and a powerful presence up front, while the East Cobb back row should be good.

"We will need them working hard in these first few matches to help the new players in the squad," said Joseph. "We have lots of players relatively new to rugby and they are improving at different speeds. Our goal is to start building middle school and junior varsity program to bring through the next generation and sustain East Cobb Rugby legacy."

The Tigers, meanwhile, are bouncing back from a 2015-16 season that wasn't their best.

"We've got a good core group of returning players plus more new players than normal, considering we have several middle school feeder teams," said Head Coach Erik Saxon. "So, our first several practices were some Rugby 101 stuff."

The flu has lain low some players and a couple of weird injuries have already hit. But the Tiger numbers look very good and Saxon said there is good competition for starting spots.