Leicester Tigers head coach Matt O'Connor says that he believes that the current squad could be the youngest in the club's history.
O'Connor is filled with enthusiasm ahead of the new season which starts in just over five weeks time.
The Australian has just signed a new long term contract and will continue to work with director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
Leicester are the current Premiership Champions and will be aiming for a third consecutive English league title this coming season.
"The group we have at the moment is a pretty young one and I would argue that Tigers have never had as young a squad," he said.
"That puts us in a very good place for the new season." he told the Leicester Mercury.
"They are athletic and robust in a sense of what you can get out of them and that is pleasing.
"With that youth comes resilience and a robustness in the training environment, which is what they need to develop their game.
"The internationals have only just started coming back from their respective breaks. But we can still do a lot of constructive work because we are trying to develop that second tier of players who will get more game time when the internationals are away in autumn and at the Six Nations.
"The work we do with them in pre-season while the internationals are away is vital and puts you in as good place come the international windows.
"The disappointing thing for some of those young guys when they are not in the match-day 23 is that they are not getting the exposure to the first-team coaches and the training time they would like to so these are valuable times for these players.
"At the same time, most of the senior blokes we have got back are physically and mentally refreshed and are hungry for more success which is great."
O'Connor says that there would be very few changes to the formula which has brought the club so much success in the last two years as the reigning champions head into the new Aviva Premiership season.
The new law interpretations which were introduced towards the end of the 2009-10 campaign will continue into the start of this season and O'Connor said Leicester would be capable of 'mixing it with anyone' if the rules led to more open, high-scoring contests.
"The new interpretations are not something that disadvantages us," said O'Connor.
"In fact, they suit us more than anything. They encourage teams to play a bit more.
"We are comfortable with that and we don't have any fears mixing it with anyone. But, if it has to be a bit more dogged, then so be it and we are happy to do that as well.
"There are bits and pieces we have tweaked but our game won't be vastly different.
"The things that Richard and I see as important in the game and the things that we try to get out of the players have not changed a lot really."
