While the international players have started a summer break and the British & Irish Lions are still in Australia, the rest of the Tigers players are already at work in preparing for the new campaign.
Among the group already at Oval Park are summer signings Neil Briggs, Jamie Gibson, Ryan Lamb, David Mele, Jerome Schuster and Owen Williams.
“The new signings are here and they’re settling in well and doing what they need to do,” said director of rugby Cockerill.
“The first couple of weeks for us are all about conditioning. We understand it’s going to be a long season and we prepare accordingly.
“I think we have recruited really well. We didn’t have too many changes in the squad, which is important.”
The summer is the time for change in the Aviva Premiership clubs with some new coaches, including Dean Ryan taking charge at Round 1 rivals Worcester Warriors, and many players being accustomed to new surroundings.
Cockerill said: “There have been a lot of changes around the Aviva Premiership and you just can’t tell who will hit the ground running. The teams around us will get stronger and the league just gets stronger and stronger.
“We’ve got six Lions to integrate back in at some point in the next month or so, we’ll get Vereniki Goneva and Logovi’i Mulipola back after their break, and the England Under-20s guys as well.
“We will get them all back and prepare as well as we can, as we do every summer. It’s good to get a break and get some time away after a pretty intense run at the end of the season.
“Like every pre-season, there will be 12 clubs who are really optimistic, thinking this is going to be their best season, and we’ll get to the first week in September and it will all start again and there will some twists and turns, no doubt.”
