Helensburgh RFC warmed up for their opening league fixture with a 40-0 loss at home to Hamilton's 2nd XV last Saturday.

The Grizzlies conceded two early tries, with the Bulls fielding a strong lineup after their first team had their fixture cancelled during the week.

And while it was a heavy defeat, the home side turned down numerous kickable penalties with the play more important than the scoreline, and head coach Adam Hart was pleased his side got a different sort of workout ahead of their first league match of the season, at home to Garnock on August 27.

He said: "We turned down a lot of penalties, which in a league match we would be kicking, and we had one try that was disallowed that shouldn't have been,

"However we didn't start very well, we had quite a young squad out and we had an injury in the first two minutes which affected us but to be fair to the guys,fronted up to them, they were a very physical team, very organised and well drilled, so I was happy overall with the game.

"It's been a good pre-season, we've had two very different types of matches, against Clydebank it was very forward orientated whereas this game tested our backs defensively a lot.

"There was lots of good patches in there where we put them under pressure and the set piece came along a lot as well especially from the Clydebank game."

There are also several injury concerns and absentees for the Garnock match.

Simon Raeside suffered an impact injury to his knee in the game, Kane Greggain and Johny Gibson are also likely to be ruled out.

Behind the scenes, there have been several changes at the club, including integrating the u18 side with the first team on Thursday nights and introducing several new coaching staff in recent weeks.

Ollie Curtis was brought in as the club's backs coach, and also Simon Brown and Stuart Ashdown becoming the joint second team managers.