There have been 19 players in this week; next week the numbers will be enhanced by the return of George Harder, Luke Sherriff and Adrian Jarvis, while those players on international duty will be away until at least 18th July.

We are close to confirming our third pre-season fixture, which will take place on Saturday 20th August. The opposition will be confirmed shortly, but it will be an away match.

It is pleasing that the announcement of our new signings last week has been well received. We do still have one or two new signings to make over the coming weeks, one of which will certainly be a second row.

On the injury front, both Tani Fuga and Steve So'oialo are continuing to progress well after the operations they had at the end of last season and should both be fully fit to take part in our pre-season games in August.

At this time of the season there is not much else to report - the first part of the training programme is based on fitness and the rugby will start in mid-July.

My next report will be in just over a fortnight's time when I return from annual leave. I'm currently in Auckland airport waiting for my flight to Christchurch!