Far from being out of shape after a three month lockdown they returned in great shape and ready to build towards a massive European Challenge Cup quarter-final against Toulon.
They will have two regional derbies in August to use to get ready for their trip to France in September and Delaney is hoping to extend the season for as long as possible.
“It has been a long three months but, in fairness to the boys, they have all kept themselves in great shape and stayed connected. We’re really happy with how they have come back,” said Delaney.
“Their response has been excellent and now we have to start building up their tolerance to play rugby again. For pretty much all of them this would have been the longest time they would have had off.
“It will be a case of slowly, slowly in building into the game on 22 August. For this initial phase of training, the players are coming in for limited training sessions in small groups.
“The Covid guidelines limit a lot of what you can do, but probably the biggest positive has been everyone seeing each other again. There has been a complete behavioural change – we have one-way flows, players are having their temperature taken and filling in a questionnaire.
“When you look at what the medical and S&C teams have been doing in pulling together the plan, the guys have done a great job.”
Delaney is also hopeful of having a fully fit squad to pick from by the time his side takes on Toulon. Rhys Patchell was just poised to return when the season was stalled, while Jake Ball, Blade Thompson, Jonathan and James Davies are all in with a chance of facing the Frenchmen.
“We won’t be far off a fully-fit squad for August. The injured boys have got their own group going and have been doing a lot of stuff on their own,” added Delaney.
“They are training really well and we are hoping to get some rugby out of them before long. Some might make it, and some might not just quite make it, but at the moment it is looking really positive for us having a full deck to pick from.”
“The Toulon quarter-final is massive for us. We’re excited by that and it’s great news that it is still on. For us, that is a really clear line of sight that we have two derby games coming up and a quarter-final in Europe.”
