London Welsh will make their Aviva Premiership debut against Leicester Tigers at the Kassam Stadium, Oxford, on the opening weekend of the season 2012/13 season on September 2 (kick-off 2pm), before then facing champions Harlequins at the Twickenham Stoop the following weekend.
“We’re delighted to draw Leicester and Harlequins, they were by far the best two teams in England last year, and they’re arguably in the top half a dozen sides in Europe,” said London Welsh head coach Lyn Jones.
“The challenge we face against Leicester and Harlequins is as big as London Welsh has ever faced.”
Indeed, Jones is acutely aware of the task the club face if it is to bridge the gap between the Championship and the Aviva Premiership.
“We’re excited about the new challenge and we’re fully aware of how difficult it’s going to be,” said Jones. “The quality of player is higher and more consistent. Physical size could be an issue and our boys are very much aware that they’ve got to get bigger, and they’ve been working at it during the summer.
“There’s not much room to rest players. It’s quite an attritional league; it’s very physical and it’s very tough.
“We understand the size of the challenge, our boys will be playing against world class players and it’s going to be a great experience for them. We’ve really got to learn from week to week and really pick our game up as we grow.”
However, Jones believes Welsh can draw inspiration from Exeter Chiefs and Worcester Warriors in establishing themselves in the Aviva Premiership.
“The Exeter model is fantastic and we measure ourselves results wise against Worcester, when they were in the Championship. Our scores and results were on par with them,” he said.
“It’s about studying them [Exeter] and understanding why they’ve done so well. We’re pretty confident that we can go up and stay up.”
The Exiles clinched the Championship with a 66-41 aggregate victory over the Cornish Pirates at the Kassam Stadium on May 30, but Welsh’s place in this season’s Aviva Premiership was only confirmed on June 30 after the club won its appeal against the RFU.
“The challenge is made more difficult because we didn’t get notification that we were going up until the end of June – we’ve already got one hand tied behind our back,” said Jones.
“You don’t know what your budget is so you can’t sign Aviva Premiership players or extra staff. Everything was on hold.
“We’ve got a mad rush now, but it’s not impossible. Rugby Union is not a science, it’s a simple game. We’ll be setting ourselves targets as the season progresses.”
