Contepomi prepared for Portlaoise visit
Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:57
Leinster's Argentina star Felipe Contepomi is relishing the opportunity to travel to the North Midlands on Friday and he believes that the Irish province's squad is in excellent shape coming into the start of the new season.
Contepomi believes that club visits such as these are an important part of the squad's pre-season preparations, ahead of the upcoming week long Italian tour - which will see the province take on Padova and Treviso.
He said: "I think that it's good to get out and thank our supporters throughout the province because they play a big part in the team's success. Although it can be hard to travel around at times, club visits like the one in Portlaoise this week further strengthens the bond between the province and the team and that can only be good news for everyone.
"It's nice to get a large support at our training sessions and to then meet the supporters and sign autographs.
"Leinster is not just about Dublin and though we are based in Donnybrook and play in the RDS, there is huge support right across the province. It's important to expand our training sessions and visit the clubs and we're looking forward to the day."
Away from the field of play the Puma flyhalf, who captained his country in last weekend's 9-63 defeat to world champions South Africa, has always enjoyed visiting different parts of the country.
"I try to get out and see the different places and I enjoyed bringing my family to visit the likes of Kerry and up along the West Coast. Wicklow is another beautiful county, but I haven't seen much of the midlands and I hope to do so over the coming months."
It has been a busy year for Contepomi and though he admits that pre-season is as difficult as ever, he believes that the hard work being done now will pay dividends when the Magners League kicks off next month.
"Pre-season is always hard but it's necessary", the 31-year-old said.
"We know that we have to put in the effort now because we want to start strongly in the Magners League. We have recruited some good players and the squad is really competitive which will enable us to rotate at times. Hopefully we can also stay injury free.
"This is the time to try new combinations because we have to start strongly in the league and Cardiff away is one of the toughest away games that you can play.
"This is an exciting part of the season because the pre-season games are only a week or so away. We will try to learn a lot from these training sessions and take them into the three trial games which are very important."
