North Wales Crusaders head coach Carl Forster believes his side are in a better position than this time last year ahead of their league campaign commencing this weekend in the shape of a trip to face Cornwall RLFC.
It will be 38 days since North Wales Crusaders played a competitive game which saw the Welsh side put in a spirited performance against Championship outfit Widnes Vikings, resulting in a 14-30 defeat.
Asked what the team have been up-to in their downtime, Carl Forster said: "After the Widnes we did a long review of that game, looked at the good things and the bad things and then we had a good down week and forgot about rugby for a little bit.
"We came back in the following three weeks and hit the ground running, concentrated on a lot of defensive work and focused on our fitness.
"The boys really ripped in to be ready for Sunday."
The 1895 Cup and Challenge Cup fixtures were treated as pre-season and during that time, it was an opportunity for the coaches to learn about the class of 2024.
Foster commented: "We have a good group of people, we had our training camp in North Wales which gave us the chance to spend a bit more time with each other, we are a tight knit bunch, a lot tighter than we were this time last year, we have a young team and all the lads have gelled.
We are working on shape and different combinations and I'm really excited to see what we can do this year."
Cornwall kicked off their campaign last weekend with a 54-12 defeat to the hands of Keighley Cougars
Forster said: "I watched Cornwall against Keighley, they're a big side, they have a big set of players, and if you go one up rugby against them, it will be a really tough contest"
The pitch will be a challenge too, as its been used for Rugby Union in the winter, it will be a tussle in the middle and it does turn out to be that sort of game, it will be a low scoring game"
North Wales Crusaders will be travelling to the South West with a full strength team, Foster added: "Everyone is pretty much available, I don't think Ben Evans will be travelling due to a imminent birth of his child, which will be a massive loss for us, but somethings are more important than rugby".
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