Working with the forwards last night, I got a very strong sense that the up-front dominance that we enjoyed last year is going to continue to be a feature of our game in 2013/2014.

With all our old hands back, and some very welcome new additions, we have some extremely strong young men in our squad, and after 13 weeks of pre-season fitness and a good deal of summer growth, they are itching to make all their hard work count on the pitch this season.

The added dimension of full sized pitches and flankers will work strongly in our favour, and our backs can expect to get the same magic carpet ride that they got last year!

Just remember chaps, its forwards that win games. Backs only get to determine by how much!

Andy Dalrymple