For the last month, Forbes Magpies captain-coach Jake Grace has been preparing for an international.

The 25-year-old backrower has been named to make his debut for Malta – one of 11 debutants for the Knights – in their clash with the Philippines at New Era Stadium, Cabramatta, on Saturday.

It’s a serious step up from training at Spooner Oval for Grace, who qualifies for the fledging rugby league nation thanks to his maternal grandfather’s Maltese heritage.

“I’ve been approached about playing before, I was in touch with the Malta guys while I was in Sydney (playing with Penrith), but their games have always been during the season,” Grace said. 

“This one falls perfectly, and it’s a great opportunity to play a bit of different footy with a few different blokes.”

The clash is one of a number of steps Malta must take to qualify for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.

“They’re fairly low down the pecking order, so there’s a few games we need to win to get into the World Cup,” Grace said.

“We’ve got the Philippines this weekend and then there’s a few more tiers to go from there.”

As Grace eluded to earlier, he’s been in contact with the Maltese Rugby League since his time at the Panthers’ under 20s.

Stints at Albury and obviously now Forbes later, the multiple-premiership winning gun said he’d hoped to further foster the old Penrith-Malta connection and recruit a couple of old, NRL friends for the clash.

“Shane Shackleton and Danny Galea, I tried to get them to have a run but they reckon they’re too old now,” Grace laughed.

Malta captain, Jake Attard believes that his former teammate will make an ideal weapon.

“Not so much containing their momentum but to get a bit of our own,” Attard said. “He had a tremendous year with Forbes last season and he is someone we can definitely build some energy off for our team.”

Gates open at Cabra Leagues at 4pm. The main game kicks off at 7.30pm.

MALTA: 1 Tom Vella, 2 Jake Webster, 3 Nathan Falzon, 4 Aaron Weston (vc), 5 Nathan Benson, 6 Luke Cauchi, 7 James Redman, 8 Dean Zammit, 9 Jake Attard ©, 10. Jake Lennox, 11 Jake Grace, 12 Kyal Greene, 13 Aaron Grech; Interchange: 14 Matt Thompson, 15 Jonathon Trott, 16 Ben Stone, 17 CJ Rapinette.