The picture shows the fun side of Strength & Conditioning (S&C and fitness) training as the start of the season looms on Sunday 8th September. Thanks Spencer for a fun session

A note about S&C and Fitness: The boys who will fare best this season will be the ones who put the effort in before the season starts - there is a cast-iron link between the boys who train and fewer injuries throughout the season. You can't go from PS4 all summer to a full bore commitment to School and Club rugby and expect to get away injury-free. While there's always an element of fitness to pre-season touch - two sessions a week isn't enough and I expect the boys to put some time in at the gym,the park, the pavements or the grounds up at HRFC ideally 3 days a week on top of HRFC - so 5 training days 2 rest days. Please see me if you want a training plan. Additionally if you're an aspiring kicker or lineout thrower practice makes perfect, again happy to supply balls to your son - hats off to Fin M (and Dan), who stayed on after training to practice his kicking - I need to see more of this dedication!

With just 5 weeks until squad selection for the first set of league matches and a number of new players to the squad, expect selection to be very challenging, each season everybody starts with a clear slate - there are no shoe-ins! Fitness, core skills, discipline, teamwork and coachability will be key selection factors.

Preseason run-in to HML Round 1
We will break for the Bank Holiday Sunday, we will then move into contact-based training and we will also move to our later allocated slot for mid-week training of 20:00-21:30 because by the end of August we will need floodlit pitches, which have limited availability. Sundays will extend to 10:00-12:00.

Sun 18/8 - 10:30-12:00
Weds 21/8 - 18:30-20:00
Sun 25/8 - NO TRAINING
Weds 28/8 - 20:00-21:30
Sun 1/9 - Potential 7-a-side tournament
Weds 4/9 - 20:00-21:30
Sun 8/9 - Letchworth vs Hertford A , Royston vs Scorpions
Weds 11/9 - 20:00-21:30
Sun 15/9 - 10:00-12:00 - Squad Selection Match
Weds 18/9 - 20:00-21:30
Sun 22/9 - HML ROUND 1 Tring and Hitchin B away

In the meantime England continue to build towards RWC2019 in Japan, I look forward to hopefully an injury-free rematch with Wales this weekend!

Did you spot Hertford RFC in the England Squad Announcement? If you can't wait go to 1 min 11 sec

I attach a link to the latest England video Rising Sons - Episode 6