By Cherry Picker
June 22 2011

It only seems days since the heartbreak of losing in the Premiership play-off semi-finals and there are more than two months to go to the new season, but Gloucester are back in training already, and reports so far suggest things are looking good. 

The players are reported to be in good nick, and with more than six weeks to go to the first pre-season games they can only get fitter.

The forthcoming season is, of course, more complicated than most because of the World Cup in New Zealand, meaning that the strength in depth of a club’s squad will perhaps be more telling than the strength of the first-choice XV.

Top internationals can virtually be written off for the first half of the season if their teams do well in New Zealand, and that means that fringe players of all nationalities could have a massive bearing on the destination of the silverware.

Glaws fitness boss Barny Allen says the first few days of pre-season work have gone well and admits he was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the players.

He told the Citizen: “Usually the first day of pre-season with everyone coming back into it can be pretty manic, but the players were excellent.

"I honestly could not believe it … they were really good and I think a lot of that is to do with we have got a pretty good settled squad with some good additions into it.”

One or two players have come back over the target weight set for them, but Allen says the difference is not drastic and can soon be put right.

The pre-season routine at Hartpury includes providing the players with breakfast and lunch, and Allen says that is more important than it sounds because it means they don’t even have to think about whether they are eating the right things … they are there, literally on a plate.

Meanwhile, it’s been announced that thanks to two giant new screens being installed at Kingsholm, fans in every part of the ground will be able to see action replays as well as pre-match videos from the start of the new season.

It’s the sort of innovation many will welcome, specially those who take children to matches, but many traditionalists will condemn the move as the latest example of the game becoming too commercialised.

Whatever you think, nobody will be forcing you to look at the screens.

Promising pre-season start for Glaws

Discussion started by Shedloads (IP Logged), 22/06/2011 12:12

Shedloads
22/06/2011 12:12

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