Fitness and S&C cannot be underestimated. Get the boys well on the road to fitness and then introduce the skills stuff.
Strength/Conditioning and skills are not one or the other so we're being very naive in dismissing the merits of playing a couple of games earlier on in the pre-season. A player can still gain fitness/conditioning from the demands of a couple of trial games and the cardio system will still get a work out.
Also, depending on how they approach these trials, they may not go balls to the wall in intensity which means a huge recovery period isn't needed and that they can continue to overload the body with S&C based work that you associate pre-season entailing.
Who knows, perhaps by seeing how the boys go in 60-80 minute games earlier on, means the coaching team can put greater emphasis on certain skills after seeing the problematic areas. It'll allow for these problems to be addressed earlier on than had we only picked up on it a couple weeks before Super Rugby starts.