London Irish player-coach Brendan Venter believes the lack of Six Nations calls for his players has been a bonus as they bid to repeat last season's shock Powergen Cup final victory over Northampton Saints in Sunday's semi-final at Oxford.
"We're quite lucky we didn't have that many people away on international duty," said Venter, who has had three weeks to prepare his team.
"The break was good for us. In a season you're just going from match to match and patching things up.
"The game is so hard and people get so sore you usually have just one day for proper training but with a break you can do some actual coaching and work on attacking things so I've enjoyed this," he said.
Even though Irish have had an up and down season and, despite some excellent performances, are still not clear of the Zurich Premiership relegation zone, Venter is hoping his team can hit one of their high spots on Sunday.
He said: "The standard of the Premiership is so good that you don't have to play that badly to lose. The main thing for me is that we have been playing much better.
"Our performances have picked up in the last two or three matches. This weekend we have targets we want to reach and if we want to win we have to achieve them."
But he knows it will not be easy and pointed to the calibre of a Northampton side in which he picked out England hooker Steve Thompson, Lions prop Tom Smith, England wing Ben Cohen and scrum-half Matt Dawson among the danger men.
Venter believes part of the reason why England were not especially convincing in their RBS 6 Nations victories over France and Wales can be put down to the absence of injured scrum-half Dawson and he said: "I know when he's playing well, Northampton and England play well.
"I see Northampton as one of the teams of the future in the Premiership."
Apart from long-term casualties Ryan Strudwick, Justin Bishop, Richard Kirke and Darren Edwards, Irish were able to name a full strength line-up today.
And, after being without a shirt sponsor all season, the club who sell more replica shirts than any team in the country, today announced a short-term deal with bookmakers Paddy Power.
The initial sponsorship is for two high profile matches - Sunday's semi-final and the St Patrick's weekend league home match against Harlequins - but it will be extended to three if Irish reach the Powergen final at Twickenham on April 5th against the winners of Saturday's semi between league leaders Gloucester and champions Leicester.
Conor O'Shea, the London Irish managing director, said: "In difficult times for rugby this is a good deal for the club."
He explained that Irish have been without a shirt sponsor so far this season because: "We decided we were not going to undervalue and undersell our brand."
London Irish(v Northampton on Sunday): Mapletoft, Sackey, Burrows, Venter, Horak, Everitt, Martens, Worsley, Drotske, Hardwick, Casey, Kennedy, Gustard, Dawson, Sheasby.
Replacements: Barrett, Appleford, Danaher, Flavin, Delaney, Hatley, Halford.