The Western Lois Muir Challenge Team will head to Dunedin this coming weekend for their first round of games in the Lois Muir Challenge 2012.

Western will face Cook Strait, and the combined Otago-Southland team The Remarkables in two games at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin on Sunday 25th.

The Lois Muir Challenge features seven of the top regional teams in the country and is played over three weekends. A finals weekend will be held in Porirua on 30th March and 1st April.

The competition has already begun with Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Counties Manukau adn Auckland Waitakere competing in Te Awamutu last weekend.  Auckland Waitakere are currently on top with three wins from that round.

Eleven players will represent Western. In their final training session at Wanganui earlier this week, Yvette McCausland-Durie confirmed the team is ready.

The Lois Muir Challenge, like the ANZ Championships, started in 2008 as a tier below the professional competition and is a critical pathway for New Zealand players to have the opportunity to move up to the next level.  This is the fourth year that Western has competed in this competition and the squad hopes to improve on last year's status as runners-up by regaining the winning title Western earned in 2010.

The full Western Lois Muir Challenge team is: