Former Canberra Raider Terry Campese luring rugby union converts to Queanbeyan Blues

But the codehoppers have proved so successful it's given him a selection headache going into his first game as captain-coach of the Queanbeyan Blues.

Originally he hoped to have one or two in his first-round side to take on the Belconnen United Sharks at O'Connor on Saturday, but he has named four in the end.

One of those is former ACT Brumbies winger Francis Fainifo, who played 48 Super Rugby games before he finished his professional career in France.

There's also Brendon Taueki, Brendon Spears and David Beath playing against the Sharks, while Steven Prail and George Stewart have also come on board this season.

Campese has also signed former Raider Kyle O'Donnell, but he's out injured.

"I've done a bit of shopping around just because of the salary cap that we have," Campese said.

"We have a points-based system and union players count as zero pointers so I thought I'd try and get a few over.

"I was hoping one or two would be able to adapt to the game, but the trial we had it was mind-blowing - the whole lot of them played out of their skins.

"Talking about selection headaches - I've got a few."

Fainifo has been mates with Campese for years, with their friendship continuing while the pair were in Europe - Fainifo playing rugby in France and Campese for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League.

He returned to Canberra a couple of years ago to try and finish his career with the Brumbies, playing for the Canberra Vikings in the National Rugby Championship in 2015.

But things didn't work out and Fainifo got a job in human resources instead.

Campese asked him to come out and play in the charity match to raise money for the family of Samantha Bettay, who died of cancer earlier this year.

Now he'll run out for his Blues debut.

"Terry and I have been good mates since when he was at the Raiders and I was at the Brumbies - we did a lot of promos and events together," Fainifo said.

"We stayed good friends, even when he was overseas as I was there as well in France.

"I was going to play on the wing for that charity match and then I think I impressed the big man and he said, 'You keen to put on the jersey for the Blues?'"

While he made a career playing union, league's no stranger to Fainifo.

He grew up playing in Campbelltown, where Israel Folau, Jarryd Hayne and Frank Pritchard all came from.

Fainifo will also return to union next weekend, when he'll play in the Brumbies legends game at Canberra Stadium next Saturday.

"I played on the wing for Wests Magpies a long time ago with Frank Pritchard, he was on the wing and now he's playing for Parramatta [in the NRL]," he said.

"He'll be playing tomorrow [against the Canberra Raiders], so we'll be catching up.

"That's where our careers started and obviously he kept going in league and I got the opportunity to play union.

"But it's been 13 or 14 years - everything's changed, there's all this wrestling and tactics ... back in my day it was run straight and get metres."

CANBERRA RAIDERS CUP ROUND ONE

Saturday: Gungahlin Bulls v West Belconnen Warriors at Gungahlin, 2pm; Belconnen United Sharks v Queanbeyan Blues at O'Connor, 2pm.

Sunday: Goulburn Workers Bulldogs v Woden Valley Rams at Goulburn, 2pm; Queanbeyan Kangaroos v Tuggeranong Bushrangers at Freebody Oval, 3pm.