NEW Saints boss Keiron Cunningham wants his side to hit the ground running – and believes the tough pre-season schedule they have arranged will allow them to do that.

The team got off to a flying start last season, winning the first nine games, and gave them the perfect cushion to withstand the full effects of a shocking injury toll to finish top.

The restructured league competition and the daunting prospect of NRL premiers South Sydney Rabbitohs coming to Langtree Park to fight for the season’s first piece of silverware mean that Saints will have to hit their straps from the outset.

Saints have arranged two tough friendlies – at home to Widnes and Wigan – to get them up to speed and Cunningham was relishing the Grand Final repeat in particular.

He said: “I spoke with Shaun Wane after last year’s game and he said it was probably the best friendly the club has been involved with because the rivalry is there – as a result there is intensity in the game that tests the players.

“It was good to have the old Boxing Day game – but that is a little too early for the players – but I suppose this is still in and around that time.

“There is nothing like a Saints v Wigan derby to get a team ready for the start of the year.

“The way the league is structured now, with the top eight teams splitting away, you have to hit the ground running – you can’t afford to build into a season any more – that luxury has gone.

“A poor start soon catches up with you. If you are not in the top part of the competition then you have got no chance of winning the Grand Final.

"You have to come out of the gun flying. If we can have a start like last year when we won the first nine games that would give us something we can build on.”

Cunningham reported positive news on the medical front with all players who missed the title winning finale to 2014, on course to return in time for the opening rounds.

There was also better than anticipated news on prop Alex Walmsley, who did not need extensive surgery on the hip injury he carried last term with Luke Walsh and Jonny Lomax both on track after their significant injuries.

“Walmsley will be back and fit to play in middle of January. The surgery went well on a hip injury he had been carrying all year and we thought it was going to be a major operation – but they did not have to do the big job on him when they went in. It will be a 12-week recovery – which sounds bad but nowhere as bad as it could have been.

“Jonny and Luke are both online where the physios have predicted. If we gave no hiccups everyone will be fit for the start of the season. We have a couple of people ahead of schedule and a couple who reached a plateau – we don’t want to push anyone too hard, too early and lose them before the start of the year.”

Meanwhile the squad will not be heading to Florida for warm weather training as had been mooted, with Cunningham deciding that there were other priorities for the playing group.

He said: “We contemplated Florida as pre season – and that would have been a luxury for us because we haven’t travelled pre-season for a while.

"We’d have played an extra game to fund it – but I spoke with Mike Rush and Eamonn and explained that there are things that every department needs the conditioning, medical and other departments.”