KIWI Blair Feeney arrived at his new club Sedgley Park on Wednesday and was immediately impressed with what he saw.

"The facilities here are great, the pitch is fantastic and I'm really looking forward to the new season," he said.

The 29-year-old, who joins the Tigers from Italian side Viadana, expects to sample a very different style of play to what he experienced last season.

"Italian rugby is different," he said: "the length of the season made things quite difficult - we played 39 games - as did the refereeing, the training regime and the crash-bang style of play.

"We trained twice a day for two hours, but when you play 39 games you don't really need that amount of conditioning.

"But they think that because you are a full time professional you have to front up every day. They tend to run rugby with a soccer mentality, but they are two completely different games."

He got an insight into British rugby when Viadana played Rotherham Titans (who were relegated from the Premiership at the end of last season) in the Parker Pen Shield.

"Those European games were very enjoyable," he said: "we played really well, and I put that down to the referees, who let the game flow more, and the opposition."

However, rugby wasn't the overriding factor in his decision to come to Sedgley Park.

"Experiencing a change of lifestyle was just as important as playing a different style of rugby," he said.

"Apart from playing Rotherham my only other experience of British rugby was watching it on TV and listening to team-mates and friends, like David Wood who played for Manchester last season and enjoyed it.

"I get the impression it's quite an expansive style of rugby and I have my own ideas on how the game should be played, but I need to meet the players and see how they play to get an assessment on how they do things."

Helping him make his decision to leave Italy and head for North Manchester was one of his team-mates at Viadana.

"Tom Beim, who used to play for Sale Sharks, told me there was an opportunity to come here and really sold Manchester and the surrounding area to me," he explained.

"I know very little about the club. I understand it's had quite a low profile in the past but hopefully we can change that and make our mark.

"After such a long and tiring season I've spent six weeks at home in Auckland recuperating, doing some running and light gym work and now I feel refreshed and raring to go, I'm looking forward to training and I'm keen to get into the pre-season games."

It has been suggested the former Super 12 goal-kicking fly-half may be invited to add to his responsibilities by taking over as backs coach. However, he has no intention of jumping straight in and throwing his weight around.

"I don't want to tread on anyone's territory too early," he said: "I just want to help out any way I can and see how things go.

"But if I'm asked for my views I will give them and I'd be only too happy to take on whatever responsibility the club wants to give me."

This Saturday Sedgley travel to Castle Park to face National Two side Doncaster in the first of three pre-season friendlies, followed by trips to Manchester (August 20) and Waterloo (Augusdt 28).