ST AUSTELL head coach Sam Parsons believes his side can ‘100% win every game we play’ as a new-look Saints side prepare to start their Regional One South West campaign at home to Chew Valley on Saturday (3pm).

The former Redruth centre stepped up to the main job ahead of last season and guided the Saints to fifth after a slow start, their play-off push only coming to an end on the penultimate weekend at Brixham.

Since then there have been changes on and off the field, with several first-teamers moving on or unavailable in the early weeks.

The trio of Archie Bees, Ben Plummer and Matt Boothby are out in Australia playing, while player-coach Matt Shepherd has joined National League One Camborne, Plymouth Albion fly-half/full-back Ben Saunders has moved up a level to Barnstaple, while fly-half Chris Ashwin has retired.

However, the rest of the squad are staying and have been supplemented by prop Max Cardwell from Wadebridge Camels and some overseas talent in the shape of Australian hooker Connor Wild and fellow countryman Sam Stokes. South African back Neldus Kruger is another new arrival.

Parsons admits it’s been a busy summer at Tregorrick Park, saying: “We’ve pretty much got the same pack as we’ve had for the last three years which is pleasing, although we’ve brought in hooker Connor Wild from Australia as Pete Harris is out until the new year following a surgery.

“In the backs we’ve lost a few, but thankfully we’ve been able to keep Jamie Stanlake and Dan Tyrrell which is vital for us, and the likes of Dan Navas and Max Bullen are another year older.

“We’ve brought in another Aussie in Sam Stokes who can play anywhere across the backline which is always important, particularly now we can name five replacements as opposed to three, and a South African in Neldus Kruger who can play at 10 or 15 which were positions we were desperate to fill.

“The other signing so far is Max Cardwell who has signed for us from Wadebridge. He joined us ahead of last season from them, but was injured and then went back there to get some game time. Unfortunately he’s picked up another injury that will rule him out for a few weeks, but he should be back soon, as will Matt Boothby who has been out in Australia with Archie and Ben. He’s a massive player for us.”

The season has been delayed by a fortnight due to the summer heatwave, but Parsons, who saw his side thrash Camborne Seconds 62-10 last weekend, wasn’t tearing up the script anyway.

He continued: “Pre-season in terms of structure and how we want to play has been quite easy as we’ve looked to continue from where we left off towards the end of last season when we were in really good form.

“The systems are already in place so we carried on from where we left off but just making sure we uplift everyone to fine-tune it.

“When the RFU announced the two-week delay, numbers dropped for a while, but from speaking to other clubs, most have been in the same boat so we’ve adapted and we’re happy with what we’ve done.”

The league sees changes from last year with Devonport Services going up as champions, but with no side coming down there have been three from the respective leagues below with Newent, Trowbridge and Weston-Super-Mare promoted to Step Five.

Parsons continued: “I think the league will be a bit of an unknown for the first few weeks, but it seems to get stronger each year. I think clubs are going more local and trying to recruit, so we’ll see what happens.

“If we can continue to improve our performances, I’ll be happy. To tell you the truth, with several new faces I have no idea at the moment where we might finish until the new boys settle in, but I certainly back us 100% to be able to win every game we go into, although that’s obviously not going to be the case.”

St Austell have plenty of players to choose from with the seconds – better known as the Sinners – once again in a highly-competitive Counties Two Cornwall where they face several first teams, including an opening day trip to promotion-hopefuls Bude this Saturday (3pm).

They just about maintained their status last term following a late revival.

He continued: “We’re another year into our systems now as a club. As a club we want all of our sides to play a similar style so as they come up through they know what to expect, and we’ve got a good blend of youngsters coming through and we finished last season by beating Helston and champions Camborne Seconds, so it’s about doing it on a more consistent basis.”

Away from the pitch also has a new-look to it.

Parsons concluded: “There have also been some changes in the background with Ian Grantham taking over as the new chair from Paul Hayes.

“He’s brought in a few old players to help behind the scenes and that’s always good for creating an environment where people want to be both before, during and after games. But I’d also like to give a big shout out to Paul. He’s put in so much work over the last few years to get the club to where it is today.”