Josh McNally says the disappointment of narrowly missing out on the URC play-offs last season has been replaced by excitement at the prospect of trying to go one better this term.

Cardiff Rugby finished just one point and one place outside the top eight having occupied a play-off spot for much of the campaign.

Now, fuelled by “a huge desire”, they are getting ready to go again having put in the ground work during a gruelling first block of summer training.

Looking back on last season, second row McNally said: “The play-offs were never really a target of ours at the start of the year. We were just talking about how we were going to grow and get better as a group and enjoy it along the way.

“But then when we got to that period around the end of the Six Nations, we set a goal and we tried to achieve something.

“We were underdogs all year. No-one gave us a chance. But all year we fought for everything, fought for every match, fought for every win.

“When we went to South Africa for the final two games, I felt like we had made it, that we were pretty much there.

“It was disappointing that the results went against us, including our own. In the end, we just missed out.

“But, ultimately, we left Cape Town thinking we had done a good job during the season.

“When you start goal-setting and looking at where we can go this year, I think it’s a massive positive that the goal we set for ourselves midway through last year we pretty much got there and we were unfortunate not to make the play-offs.

There’s a huge desire

“I think it was a good season. The group, the club and the organisation grew and we were all just excited to get going this year. That’s been reflected in pre-season so far.”

The 6ft 7ins, 19st 13lbs England international continued: “There’s a huge desire. We have shown what we can do against good teams. There’s a desire now that we want to push that, get better as a group and start putting 80 minutes on the pitch.

“If you look at the fixtures this year, pretty much every team that we play at home we’ve got to be targeting that as a result. The way the fans came out last year, I couldn’t believe it, some of the games we played here.

“So going into this year, there’s a huge amount of positivity around the group about what we can achieve and we are just really excited to get out there.”

The Cambridgeshire-born and Hereford-raised McNally played a big part in the strides Cardiff took last season, figuring in no fewer than 21 matches following his arrival from Bath.

He admits he had considered hanging up his boots when his five-year stint at The Rec was coming to an end, but the move to the Arms Park has given him a new lease of life.

“It really rejuvenated my love for the game,” says the 34-year-old.

“I think once that fire goes out it’s a pretty hard sport to keep playing every week. But I love to come into work every day. It’s been a perfect move for me.”

Merthyr Mawr a crazy experience

Over the past month or so, work has involved an arduous pre-season programme, which has included a session up and down the infamous Merthyr Mawr sand dunes.

“There’s a Welsh feel to that, going to the dunes,” said McNally.

“It’s a pretty crazy experience to see what the boys went through there in terms of some of the mental toughness to dig in.

“It’s a really tough test and what the boys went through was incredible.

“We train really hard and push ourselves physically to understand how we deal with those pressure situations under fatigue in games where we need to talk to each other well and have the mental resilience to move on to the next job.

“There have been some extremely tough sessions, but all with a purpose and you feel like we are moving towards something. It’s been an absolutely fantastic start in my opinion.”