The Islanders began their pre-season schedule on 3 August, despite having no start-date to work towards, with the professional squad initially being split into four training groups who had no physical interaction with each other. That has been reduced to two groups – the forwards and the backs – until government and RFU restrictions on group sizes and contact sports are relaxed.
Championship fixtures are unlikely to return until at least November given that the 2019/20 Premiership campaign is not due to conclude until 24 October.
Discussing the first ten days of training, off the back of a five-month break, Robinson said: ‘First of all it has been a challenge, something for us to get our teeth into – looking at how we can get our game model across to the guys without everyone being together. We had to go to four groups so we decided to mix them to start with, keeping them in their housing groups to follow the regulations. What that allowed us to do as coaches was spend time with every player, which was great to build relationships over that first week.
‘We hope it [a Championship restart] will be this side of Christmas at the very latest but the way I think about it is this is what I love to do anyway. The end goal will be to do well in the league and win games of rugby but for now let’s enjoy getting better at what we do. I’m actually loving it and I think the boys are as well.’
Robinson, the son of former England and Scotland head coach Andy, added: ‘It’s not fun having to get tested all the time, and with the restrictions on travel and hotel life … it’s going to be difficult. But if all that means we get to play rugby games then we’ll be the first to do it. We just have to stay focused and it adds an extra sense of discipline as we cannot afford to be sloppy and get a couple of cases, because then we can’t play. We’ve got to make sure that we’re following the guidelines all the time.’
