CORNISH All Blacks joint head coach, Ryan Westren, admits ‘it’s great to be back’ after the Cornish All Blacks started their pre-season last week.

The Polson Bridge outfit enjoyed a wonderful 2018/19 season, finishing second in the Tribute South West One (West) to secure a promotion play-off against Old Centralians, which they won to secure a return to the South West Premier after two seasons of trying.

Already over the summer they’ve brought in a plethora of new faces with four forwards — Rory Cinnamond, Rhys Carpenter, Tom Bottoms and Chris Mcdonald either rejoining or moving to North Cornwall — while in the backs, Louis Ogilvie and Alfie Lang have also signed on the dotted line.

Westren said: “It’s great to be back, I think everyone looks forward to that break at the end of a hard season. But I’m sure any rugby player will tell you that feeling soon wears off and the itchy feet kick in where you want to be back out there.”

Plying their trade back at Step Five of the national pyramid inevitably will create much more expectation as well as obstacles to overcome, but the former Cornish Pirates and London Scottish centre is relishing the challenge, even if they only get to train on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

He said: “We spoke about how much of a different challenge this year is, in terms of expectation, potential results, etc and how we deal with that as a squad, we looked back on some key areas highlighted from last year and how we continue some of the good stuff onto this year but also rectify the areas highlighted as not being where we want them to be.

“In terms of training, it’s been mostly ball in-hand stuff with a focus on keeping that ball in play to keep the intensity high and get our running in that way.

“Our time together is limited, so the more time we can utilise the ball in hand and with on our fitness at the same time through conditioned games/drills/team stuff then the better. It’s about being efficient with the time we do have.”

The All Blacks’ first pre-season game is at Cornwall and Devon League side Pirates Amateurs on Saturday, August 10 before the pick of their ‘friendlies’ see them host National Two (South) outfit Redruth on Friday, August 16. Western Counties (West) outfit Cullompton visit 24 hours later before they round their pre-season off with a trip to St Ives on Saturday, August 31.

Their league campaign gets underway at Exeter University on Saturday, September 7 (3pm).