By STEVE MASCORD
NOVEMBER and December are supposed to be about hard graft and torturous conditioning in rugby league – but visitors to Catalans’ Stade Gilbert Brutus over the last five weeks have been greeted by something else entirely.
Preparing for his first full season in control, Dragons coach Joel Tomkins has been putting his charges through their paces with the ball – with the first Super League game against Bradford still two months away.
The sight of entire sets of six being played out so early in the preparation – instead of drills and fitness – is a break with convention.
“Twelve new boys, a completely new spine – one, six, seven,” Tomkins explains to rugbyleaguehub.com Long Reads.
“Obviously we’ve got Alrix (De Costa) at nine and Olly (Partington) at 13. There’s a bit of familiarity.
“So we’ve hit the ground running. It’s been great. Week one we started with a little bit of edge v edge and into week three we’re going full-on, full contact, 13 v 13.
“Just because: for me, you can do all the skills in the world and conditioning stuff but that actual 13 on 13, that feel, that getting into the grind – we need that more than probably anybody with the amount of changes that we’ve made.
“So I’ve been really happy. The combinations are really working. The halves are really flowing with each other.”
Those halves are, of course, South Sydney signing Lewis Dodd and Canterbury’s Toby Sexton, who will play one season before joining the Perth Bears.
“So we signed 12 new players and there’s nobody over the age of 24,” said Tomkins.
“They’re all in their early 20s. I think it’s made it easier with having such a new group. They’re all pretty much living in a similar area – down at Canet with a couple towards to Perpignan.
“…with a consequence that a lot of them are single or just with a partner, not many kids.
“So they’ve probably got a bit more free time to socialise outside of the club. That’s really helped the connection.”
Image: Allan McKenzie/SWpix