It will mark their first competition since the new region rezoning, which will see players from the Illawarra and South Coast team up with ones from the Sutherland Shire, Canterbury, Bankstown and Appin areas, and separate from the Southern Suns - which now incorporates Far South Coast, Goulburn and the Riverina.

"The revamped club has been a process Touch NSW has been looking at for a while to improve development and pathways for all affiliates and participants around the state," said Southern Rebels' Tim Robinson.

"I know firsthand how difficult it became sometimes to commit to the Suns - as Yass was the central point, people from the South Coast would have to travel a couple of hours just to train.

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"Now everything is a lot closer, which hopefully encourages more people to get involved in the representative touch programs.

"Not only that, we join with the previous Sydney Rebels, who were an extremely well-run club, which will no doubt be a huge positive for the new Southern franchise now.

"It's a really exciting move forward for the sport and I can't wait to see what the future holds for our new representative club."

Robinson is one of 10 coaches appointed to lead the club during its maiden campaign - with the Wollongong Devils talent named the mixed 30s coach.

"The idea was when I submitted my application for the mixed 30s, which I'm stoked to get, was that I'd captain/coach the side," said Robinson, who had previous coaching stints with the Suns' mixed and women's teams.

"While that is still a possibility, I'm considering stepping back from the playing side and just concentrating on coaching.

"As much as I love playing, I've had a couple of nagging injuries and feel the time is right to concentrate squarely on the next stage of my representative touch career, which is coaching.

"With that being the case, I've had a couple of Zoom chats with NSW Touch's coaching director Tony Trad to pick his brain about that progression through the ranks and ways to expand my coaching horizons."

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With the Country Titles being cancelled and State Cup up in the air due to COVID-19, Robinson's main focus once lockdown finishes will be getting his Rebels ready for the Coffs Harbour-based tournament in March.

"If State Cup doesn't go ahead, which is generally seen as the main selection process for NTL, we will be holding trials hopefully in November," Robinson, who won NTL as a player in 2017, said.

"From there, we'll have regular training sessions to give us as best of a chance of taking out the tournament, because I'm not going there to just make up the numbers.

"I've gone close a couple of times to winning the NTL title and I'm confident we will be able to put a strong team on the park, that will all buy in to the common goal.

"It would be unreal to win nationals with the Rebels during their first season."

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