Securing a Statewide T20 ticket before Christmas, the Lions will meet Mowbray at Invermay Park on Saturday and Sunday with victory crucial to its finals hopes.

Opener Cam Lynch and gun quick Tom Gray will both miss, but the Lions still boast plenty of experience in captain-coach Alistair Taylor, Ben Humphrey and Zac Oldenhof.

"Mowbray are a really good side," Taylor said.

"Although the results haven't showed it I think they're a really competitive side - they've got some good batters and I certainly rate their bowling attack as one of the better ones in the competition.

"We'll try and take some confidence [from the T20s].

"You take some positives out of winning some games of cricket and building good relationships and a good vibe in the group so I'm sure we're going to take that into two-day cricket."

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The Eagles have been hit hard by the early return after Christmas with experienced trio James Storay (injured), John LeFevre, Clinton Reid among "four or five" unavailabilities.

The same three were missing for the Eagles' T20 campaign as a handful of TCL stars including Hadspen trio Dilan Jayalath, Jona Watts and Sameera Vishwaranaga stepped in to provide some leadership and experience.

Storay said his young players had learned plenty from the fresh faces.

"Young Billsy [Will] Dakin got to bat with Dilan and he taught Billsy some really good things and I think our young guys learned a lot - especially the energy they gave us in the field, we took a great deal out of that," Storay said.

"I'm just hoping we can put some consistent momentum and pressure on other teams as we play.

"Two-day cricket is the best and the toughest format I think - you've got to be good for longer periods so I'm really looking forward to see what our young guys will do."

ELSEWHERE IN SPORT

RIVERSIDE went winless in two-day cricket last season yet appear a strong chance in the weekend's home clash with South Launceston.

T20 runners-up for the third year running, the Blues have rolled South in both their 50-over and T20 clashes this season and will be boosted by the return of ageless paceman Lyndon Stubbs.

"We've had some momentum," Blues skipper Tom Garwood said.

"We won our last 50-over game against Ulverstone down there which is a really big win and set us in third position and we had a really good tournament in the 20-over stuff.

"We didn't get the win in the final but we beat all the other sides which is a big positive for our group.

"We play that ground really well and it's going to be a good cricket wicket - there'll be something in it if the bowlers bowl well but if a batsman stays a long time at the crease there's a big score for them as well."