Referees and coaches shuffle past as I wait in Cardiff’s new gym under the south stand of the Arms Park. The short walk along Westgate Street has left me drenched, as much of the torrential rain that hammered the Welsh capital appears to now be seeping into my clothes.

As I meet with Cardiff head coach Matt Sherratt, I first apologise for how I must look before explaining why I was a few minutes late to the ground. Just minutes earlier, the news had broken that Toby Booth would leave his post as Ospreys coach at the end of the upcoming season. Having been part of the Ospreys’ announcement – with my supposedly shocked expression having been the joke of the WalesOnline office mere minutes before – the bombshell news isn’t as surprising to me as it is to others.

“Yeah, one of the boys just mentioned it,” Sherratt says about the news, with much the same expression I mustered in the Ospreys’ announcement video. Of course, he has other things to focus on right now.

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It is just shy of 6pm on this wet Friday night and, in just over an hour, Cardiff’s second pre-season fixture against Bath will get underway. As Sherratt prepares for his second season in charge of the Blue and Blacks, WalesOnline have been granted behind-the-scenes access at the Arms Park on matchday, being allowed into the inner sanctum for this Anglo-Welsh clash.

Over the course of the next few hours, we’ll have fly-on-the-wall access to Cardiff’s dressing room and coaching box. For now, this feels like the calm before the storm – even if the Booth story reminds you that you’re never too far away from the ups and downs of Welsh rugby.

Right now, there’s enough time to be introduced to Cardiff’s coaching ticket. Compared to last year, it’s a veritable smorgasbord of coaching personnel.

Whereas in Sherratt’s first season, he was working with a part-time defence coach who was only in two days a week, things are now a little healthier on that front. Former Wales prop Gethin Jenkins is now at the Arms Park on a full-time basis, imparting his defensive wisdom.

The first of Sherratt’s coaching staff I meet on the night, he’s already living up to his reputation as being less than enthusiastic about the media. “You’ve probably slagged me off loads of times before,” he jokes, before noticing my admittedly soaking rucksack. “I know that bag, it’s a Costco special.”

I arrive just in time for the pre-match chat between the coaches and the officials, with the discussion revolving around what to look out for in the match ahead. Jenkins is reasonably vocal in this particular conversation, referring to some of the laws currently being trialled in the Rugby Championship as he readies himself for what referee Craig Evans and his team will be focusing on that night. Once that is done, the forwards break off into a side room for an indoor walkthrough. As the pack huddle up around assistant coach Scott ‘Bubba’ Andrews and new forwards coach Corniel van Zyl, many of the Cardiff forwards take turns to offer their own little words of wisdom.

Wales prop Corey Domachowski issues his own message to his team-mates. “Those boys had their chance last week. Let’s give everything tonight.” Club captain Liam Belcher follows with a few brief pointers and, with that, they break off into some indoors lineout drills at half-speed. As I turn around, Sherratt is catching up with former England coach Andy Robinson, who is now Bath’s academy head – a quarter of a century on from coaching the club to a Heineken Cup title. Around them, there’s a hive of activity in the space that will serve as Cardiff’s new gym, as preparations continue for kick-off.

Soon after, Cardiff’s forwards – having been through both their attacking and defensive variations – head back to the dressing room, with Wales flanker James Botham holding back for a few seconds to talk something over with van Zyl. Once everyone is back in the dressing room, it’s time for Sherratt’s pre-match message. Speak to anyone at Cardiff and they’ll tell you that the head coach’s honesty is a large part of the reason for the feel-good feeling that was tangible in the Welsh capital last season. After a nightmarish end to the previous season, with the sudden departure of Dai Young and the inability to offer deals to many amid a contractual freeze, Sherratt was starting behind the eight ball, but he never strayed from being anything other than matter of fact of what he was there to do.

“I just really want to build on last season,” he explains. “It’s the second season for me and it’s about not forgetting why we were in so many games last year. We didn’t win as many games as we’d like to last year, but I think people have enjoyed watching us. They’ve enjoyed seeing so many Cardiff lads playing for Cardiff. They’ve enjoyed seeing us so committed in terms of our fight.

“We’re a pretty brave team in terms of how we want to play. I think it’s important we don’t forget that because it’s 95 per cent of what we are. It’s just growing in some small areas. Some of our basics, as I always think Cardiff can do a lot of the hard things – the offloading and transitional attack – and sometimes we take our eye off the ball on discipline or ball placement. So we’ve just worked hard on the basics in pre-season but made sure we don’t forget about our fight and enjoying how we play. Hopefully that will translate to more wins.”