Head of women’s rugby Vicky Macqueen says the Leicester Tigers squad will be “better for the experience” after a first pre-season fixture last Saturday.

The Tigers team, gearing up for their first-ever competitive campaign, chose to open the pre-season programme against a Bristol Bears outfit which finished third in the top flight last season and, despite a 47-7 defeat, Macqueen said the squad and the staff will take a lot out of it.

“First, it was a really good experience for everyone,” said Macqueen.

“It was brilliant to test ourselves against one of the best squads in the country.

“Immediately after the game everyone was obviously disappointed but then, on reflection, you can say that we’ve put ourselves out there against a really solid professional outfit, they used 32-33 players against the 24 we had in our squad, and they have some real experience in there too. But speaking to them afterwards, Bristol said they knew they'd been in a game and they were very pleased with our resilience in defence too.

“We were under no illusions that it was going to be a really tough fixture for our first game, but we picked Premiership opposition deliberately to make sure the players know what it is like at that level.

“I felt the girls handled it really well and there is a lot to take out of the whole day. We’ll all certainly be better for the experience.”

Macqueen praised the spirit in the team, adding: “The work rate and the support play were good, and the will and desire to play were really good.

“We defended really well in parts, and we also broke the line a couple of times without finishing off the chances so we probably should have had a few more points on the board.”

The team resume pre-season action against Championship side London Irish on Saturday, September 3 and then go to Henley Hawks in the final warm-up fixture before the league season kicks off in the middle of next month.

For details of how to follow the women’s team in action with a season ticket or match tickets, click here.