Ben Kay was wobbling a bit. His bare feet were on an unstable, inflated rubber cushion and his back was arched against an oversized bouncy ball. He craned his neck towards the thrower standing three yards in front of him and reached out to catch the football that came straight at him, or over his head to the left, then the right. He swayed on his inflatables but a large paw unerringly consumed the target. 'It's just an exercise to improve my posture and suppleness. I can be a bit of a lunk when I run. Every bit helps,' said the second row. For a player who is helping rewrite the way the old engine-room game is being played, this was modest. After all, we are beginning to grapple with the notion that he, not Martin Johnson, is the first name down in ink on the England team sheet. 'No, no, no,' insisted Kay. 'That's not the way it is here. It really isn't. My goal right now is to make the club first team.'
Ben Kay of Leicester. Hardly lunkish at all. In fact his athletic pre-eminence is one simple reason why Leicester have four consecutive Zurich Premiership titles behind them, plus the small honour of being back-to-back Heineken Cup champions of Europe. But at Leicester it's more than just a question of being successful because the players are good. Kay's refusal to contemplate anything but improvement, his absolute disregard for the upsurge in his own career, gives an inkling of how driven the Tigers are.
At the moment they have an injury crisis that nurtures a growing feeling that this might be the year when their luck changes. They did use up their quota in their defeat of Llanelli in last season's Heineken semi-final and they did exhaust the bank of goodwill with the hand of Back in the final. But it goes without saying that Leicester are not going to slide away. Ben Kay went away with England to Argentina and played out of his skin, while Martin Johnson, Neil Back and Austin Healey took the summer off and now look in superb nick. You could cut tiles along the edges of Back's torso.
But the chasing pack might run them closer this time. Gloucester have a new coaching team. They've swapped the slightly batty Frenchness of Philippe Saint-André and Laurent Seigne for the old Wasps duo of Nigel Melville and Dean Ryan. Ryan has a vision of forward play so earthy that it is subterranean. They will love him at Kingsholm. His straightforwardness - nay, his fundamentalism - should form a fascinating foil to the slightly more ethereal Melville. The Glos troops will revel in the instruction to kick arse while playing like angels.
And talking of hard-nosed approaches, there will be no shortage from the rising number of New Zealanders. No nonsense was the order of the day when Wayne Smith arrived at Northampton. It paid off then, and now that Australian Mark Connors and Welshman Steve Williams have been recruited for the second/back row it seems the work ethos will only be developed further.
Wayne Shelford at Saracens, Warren Gatland at Wasps - who now become out-of-London Wasps at their new home in High Wycombe - and Peter Thorburn at Bristol, by being Kiwis, promise to give the English Premiership an enhanced steeliness.
It's not, however, as if single-mindedness among the coaches is entirely new, or imported exclusively from New Zealand. Jack Rowell is back at Bath, the club whose unparalleled successes in the final throes of the amateur age he oversaw. Big Jack has been away making his fortune; Bath have been going the other way. Their reunion is the stuff of dreams, but there is that saying about never going back.
Brendan Venter at London Irish is inspirationally bonkers. He is a one-man Melville and Ryan. And he's been doing it for years. It really should have come as no surprise that London Irish were the, er, surprise package of last season. Only this time he may truly have lost his marbles. He's signed an Irishman for the Irish. Bob Casey for the second row. That really may be taking things too far, although Pieter Rossouw's arrival confirms the more South African feel at the club that will continue to commute from Sunbury to Reading.
The other surprise package of last season, Sale Sharks, also tried to move home, but have stayed put at Heywood Road. They have changed their name, though. The leafy bit - Sale - has gone and they are quite simply The Sharks. Graeme Bond from Australia will give them strength in midfield but the worry must be that they might not get away for a second season with playing the most enterprising rugby in the country behind a lightweight pack. The strain may begin to tell.
Not that there has to be any strain at all. We nearly had a relegation scrap worth writing about in the late-middle section of last season, only to see the drama reduced to absurdity by the political deal cut. The domestic season in England dribbled to a late - mid-June, for God's sake - conclusion. Leicester had the Premiership sewn up by Christmas while the cartel had itself stitched together by February. All very neat; all very dull.
The Heineken Cup and the Parker Pen Shield helped us side-step the English stodge from time to time, although they will still only fall into the calendar in dribs and drabs.
And who might challenge Leicester there, on the continental scale? The same old suspects, I imagine. Munster might carry a grudge or too. And Llanelli a grievance or three. The pair of them, meanwhile, can begin to work out their frustrations on each other on Saturday, when the Celtic League gets under way. Indeed, their opening clash at Stradey Park is the pick of Britain's matches next weekend.
And France across the board will feel that the Anglo-Saxon conspiracy against them rages on. All their clubs are capable of everything and nothing. If only for the trip, it would be good to see Serge Blanco's old club Biarritz convert joy at becoming champions of France for the very first time into a determined campaign in the Heineken Cup. But, even if Biarritz, or Montferrand or Toulouse perform, what would happen if they ran into Leicester? Neil Back's pecs and Ben Kay's quest for an improved posture suggest that the reigning champions have no intention of losing their shape.
