Enniskillen Royal Grammar School coach Ashley Finlay was able to put his senior 1st XV squad for next season through their paces for the first time since the lockdown on Tuesday morning.

The players completed fitness testing with Finlay saying that the exercise was more about getting the players together after an extended period away from the game.

“After having been in lockdown for so long and with the boys not having seen their mates on been able to interact for three or four months it was just good to get back on the pitch in any capacity.

“It is only reduced activities that we are allowed to do at the minute but it helps us get back to some normality and also helps the boys physical health and mental health.

“With IRFU guidelines we are not allowed do any ball work or anything for the time being so it was just a bit of fitness testing and running so it was nothing too scary on their first day back,” he said.

And Finlay says that they will continue over the summer while following the guidelines with games expected to return in September.

“Assuming that we continue to progress through the IRFU guidance things will start to ramp up and it is expected that we will start to resume in September but things could change at any time so we will just hope that things go as planned and we’ll continue through the summer.”