The Leicester Tigers Women's squad travel south on Sunday (September 3) for a pre-season fixture against Henley Hawks.
After two months of preparations for the debut campaign in the Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby, the match provides Vicky Macqueen, Tom Hudson and the Tigers coaches a chance to get a true barometer of how the programme is developing.
"We are looking to put things together. What we've done in training; line-outs, scrum, the shape," said Hudson.
"You can't properly implement these things if you don't have opposition.
"I believe you can do as much contact training as you want with your teammates, however, it isn't truly authentic. If you want to see how players are in the contact zone, you play a game of rugby.
"Sunday's game is a chance to see the individual components of our rugby come together as one."
Leicester will travel to Henley with an extended squad, providing match time across four quarters against the Hawks in the first competitive outing for the new-look group, which is set to feature a host of new faces who joined in the summer.
Speaking about the expectations from the coaching group, Hudson added: "We aren't going to fall into the trap of expecting the team to play to a specific standard; the whole attacking system has changed, we haven't been training in a game-specific environment and we are still in pre-season preparations."
"We know the players will likely be more fatigued going in than they will be for a Premiership matchday.
"The result is not what we will measure Sunday with, it's about strong performances and - more so - testing our performance behaviours."
Hudson, who was among the additions to the club in the summer, has been happy with the progress to date ahead of the debut PWR campaign for Leicester Tigers.
"I cannot exclude a single player when I say this: every member of our squad has surprised themselves," said Hudson.
"We have raised the ceiling for where not only I but, I believe, they could have expected them to be. Not one member of our squad or even our members of staff are the finished article for the Premiership; however, from Week 1 to, now, Week 7, everyone has gotten better and closer to that goal."
Henley, who finished their last campaign in seventh place, will again play in the Championship 1 South competition this season.
Sunday's match will be the lone pre-season outing for the Women's side before the Allianz Cup kicks off in three weeks, away to Sale Sharks on Saturday, September 23.
See the full fixture list for the 23/24 season HERE.
