Newly-promoted Worcester defied the odds by staying in the Premiership last season - and inspirational skipper Pat Sanderson knows they are in for another tough battle this year.
Normally, any side winning nine matches could reasonably expect to have their safety confirmed well before the end of the campaign, but Worcester's season went right down to the wire.
``Last year was very taxing, so I don't think it could be harder - but I don't think it will be any easier either,'' said the Warriors leader. ``I think it's going to be tough for all the sides. It's a very competitive league, and there is very little between top and bottom, so it's going to be another hard season, no doubt.
``It's important just to remain focused on the job in hand. It changed week on week last season, we kept that focus pretty well and nine wins is good.
``We're looking to better that and hopefully get ourselves into the top half of the table, but we are under no illusions, it's going to be another tough year and we're going to have to be on our mettle.''
With the experience of last season and some new signings to strengthen their squad, Worcester, he believes, are better equipped than they were 12 months ago. England scrum-half Andy Gomarsall, snapped up from their opening-weekend Guinness Premiership opponents Gloucester, is expected to play an important part.
Sanderson and Gomarsall played key roles in England's successful Churchill Cup campaign in Canada and the Worcester captain is looking to the new arrival to bring out the best in his new team-mates.
``That's why he's here. He's a class, experienced player, so hopefully he will have a big effect on all the people around him,'' added Sanderson.
``He's a senior player who has done it all. We are expecting big things of Andy, and I think he's expecting big things of himself, so it will be interesting to watch him go. We've kept the main body of last season's squad together, so it bodes well. Stability is good, and we've got that.
``We've just got to make sure we come together as a team with the same sort of spirit, same sort of fight and see how we go,'' added Sanderson, who will call for Worcester to make a better start than they did a year ago.
``We caught a bit of a cold in the first few games last year. It was six or seven games before we got off the mark, but if we can just continue the form we had from mid-season, with the depth in the squad we've got now, hopefully we can keep it going.''
Despite leading the Churchill Cup squad to victory though, Sanderson has been left out of England head coach Andy Robinson's initial elite squad of 45 players this term, although there are spaces to add another five.
But flanker Sanderson, who described the Churchill Cup final victory over Argentina as ``the right result, mission accomplished``, is taking it all in his stride. ``It's important not to look too far ahead, and just think about what's going to happen on September 4,'' he claimed.
``If that goes well, then the knock-on effect is England, so from my point of view the best way to go is just to look forward to the next game.''