Cockerill has decided to take a strong squad to Cornwall for what will be his first game in charge following Pat Howard's departure at the close of the 2006/07 campaign.
"It'll be good to see how much of the stuff we've done on the training ground actually comes out in reality but the most important thing is to get guys out there for 40 minutes or so each and to get that bit of contact and that bit of fatigue that you don't get just from running around," says Cockerill. "We're five weeks into pre-season now. We've been away for 10 days in Poland so the boys have been put through their paces. From a rugby point of view, we're reasonably organised, but this weekend is more of a conditioning thing than a rugby thing.
"Things are on track. We've still got six-and-a-half weeks to go before we play Bristol, so we're happy but we'll see what happens come Saturday when we've actually played some rugby."
Tigers squad to face Cornish Pirates, Saturday, August 4, Recreation Ground, Camborne, kick-off 4pm
Forwards: Luke Abraham, Richard Blaze, Jordan Crane, Tom Croft, Mefin Davies, Brett Deacon, Louis Deacon, Owen Finegan, Ben Herring, Benjamin Kayser, Alex Moreno, Ben Pienaar, Boris Stankovich, Marco Wentzel, Julian White, David Young
Backs: Paul Burke, Matt Cornwell, Mitch Culpin, Ollie Dodge, Andy Goode, Will Hurrell, Frank Murphy, Johne Murphy, Matt Smith, Ollie Smith, Vavae Tuilagi, Tom Varndell, Ben Youngs, Tom Youngs
