The Coventry Rugby revolution continues to roll at Butts Park Arena, and director of rugby Rowland Winter says fans can look forward to a more expansive game this year.

Ambition is in the air at the club, who finished eighth in the Greene King IPA Championship last term, their first time at that level since the 2009-10 season.

But things are not stopping there and a whole host of promising signings have been made, six from the Premiership including Harlequins flanker Luke Wallace, Gloucester back Henry Purdy and Newcastle’s Ryan Burrows.

Winter believes the progressions the club are making at present are only going to improve the standard of rugby on display.

“It’s been so productive so far, we’ve moved to a full-time schedule which is a big change for us and a number of new staff, a couple of new players,” said Winter, speaking from the Greene King IPA Championship launch event at Twickenham Stadium ahead of the 2019/20 season.

“Everything has ramped up a gear and stepped up, which is exactly what was needed for us to improve on our eighth-place finish last year.

“We’ve got players who’ve come up from National One and hitting a full-time schedule for the first time so the development potential they’ve got is starting to be realised a lot more.

“We weren’t fit enough last year. And that prevented us from playing the style of rugby that we wanted to play and helped us win National One a few years ago.

“When you go up to the Championship we knew it would be a step up but gauging how much of a step it would be was guess work, you prepare as best as you can, but it’s evident the style we want to play.

“We want to be physically dominant but also play wide and we weren’t able to do that consistently for 80 minutes.

“We’re now in a far better position and are far better prepared because of a year up here and we’re more accustomed.”

There is still much of pre-season to go, with the RFU Championship Cup beginning in late September and Coventry starting the Championship away at Jersey Reds on Saturday 12 October.

The club have announced that 32-year-old prop Phil Bouton will continue as captain after being in the role for four seasons, making 95 appearances in his time at the club.

Boulton commented: “It’s been a long pre-season, I went in this morning and was reminded on the board that it was week 10 of pre-season!

“We’ve had a few lads from the Premiership in, Luke Wallace has come across from Quins and straight away he’s showing us what Premiership quality is like with how hard he trains.

“Ryan Burrows from Newcastle is a great leader and is going to be so good for us.

“We’ve not had loads of new signings but the ones that have come in definitely add stuff, it’s great to have a player of Luke’s quality sign and I’m looking forward to seeing him play.”

The Greene King IPA Championship is the second tier of professional rugby in England. To keep up to date with the latest news and features follow @ChampRugby on Twitter