THE Cornish All Blacks play their first pre-season friendly of the season on Saturday when they head down to Penzance to take on Pirates Amateurs at the Mennaye Field (midday).

The All Blacks are busy preparing for a return to the South West Premier after a two-year absence and have lined up three friendlies, starting with their Cornwall/Devon League hosts who are coached by former Camborne back Murray Westren, brother of Ryan who is player/coach at Polson Bridge.

The players have been back in training since the first Tuesday in July and Westren admits they can’t wait to get back on the pitch.

He said: “It feels like we’ve been training now for a long time so it’ll be good to put some of the stuff we’ve been working on into practice.

“When you’ve got an opposition running at you, it puts pressure on people and it’ll be interesting to see how the boys have taken in what we’ve been working on in the summer.”

With the game situated on Boardmasters weekend and a date where a couple are at weddings, Westren and fellow joint coach Ian Goldsmith will look to give the fringe players a chance.

He said: “The result at this stage is irrelevant, it’s all about getting everyone up to speed and giving everyone game time before start, especially some of those who haven’t played a lot for us.

“It’s about exposing people to the pressure and expectation. We obviously don’t want to go down there and concede points and score as many as we can, but the result isn’t important. There are too many variables, but we’ll take out what we want from it and cast aside what’s irrelevant.”

Westren has been delighted with the application shown since they reconvened.

He said: “The attitude from everybody has been 100% spot on. I think we’ve had 12 sessions so far and I can honestly say all of them have been beneficial ones. Although it is pre-season and we are at an amateur level, I’ve got to admit everyone has been spot on, so we’re where we want to be right now.”

The coaching staff haven’t been too hard on availability for the first game.

Westren said: “Everyone who’s available will play but unfortunately it falls on Boardmasters weekend, but we’ve been a bit lenient as orginally this weekend was free. My brother’s got the same problem so it’s just the way it goes.

“But we’re having a team building evening after the game. We’re going to have a camp and spent the night getting to know each other. We’ll have a few drinks and have a few activities which will be good.”

The All Blacks also announced their seventh summer signing at the weekend in the shape of Eddie McGinley.

The back, who can play either on the wing, at full-back or in the centre, played for them during the 2015/16 season in National Two (South).

But a relocation from RNAS Culdrose to Plymouth has seen him link up with the Polson Bridge club once more.

Westren said: “He’s a great bloke which is the most important thing, but he provides a different option for us. He’s tall and rangy and has a gun of a left boot on him.

“Also from the back three being an area of strength last year, a few potential things have cropped up which means we might not be as well stocked as we were six weeks ago, so for us the signing has come along at the right time.

“We had him before he went to the Navy but he’s now back and wanted to join the club, so we’re delighted.”