NORTHWICH Rugby Club’s players can expect it to be more difficult to collect points in North One West next season.

Director of rugby Martin Post told the Guardian that Blacks’ fixture list, published this week, will be relentless from the start.

“You puff out your cheeks and take a breath,” he said.

“By most people’s reckoning, the division was stronger and more competitive than ever last year.

“And that isn’t going to change.

“Like the cliché you hear from soccer managers, I look at it and ask: ‘Where will 10 wins come from to get us to 50 points?’

“You can then go from there.”

That does not mean the men from Moss Farm, third in each of the past two seasons and a point short of a promotion play-off place last time out, are aiming lower.

But Poste insists they must be realistic.

He added: “It’s unclear, certainly at this stage, if there will be a side like Vale of Lune that runs away from everybody.

“I couldn’t pick out anybody.

“Instead it’s likely to be fierce, and no weekends where you can let standards slip without getting beat.”

A trip to Anselmians, promoted from South Lancs/Cheshire Division One, on the first Saturday in September marks the start of his fourth campaign in charge.

Before then he hopes to have strengthened a squad made lighter by the departures of Tom King and James Reilly to Chester and Sandbach respectively.

However Joe Maddocks, a prop, is readying himself for a return to action after missing the whole of last season.

Poste said: “I know it’s an unoriginal thing to say, but it would be like having a new signing if he comes back refreshed.

“I’m hopeful we can add another big guy in the front-row, and conversations on that are ongoing.

“If we can hold the fort up front, then I can go with a footballing back five behind them which is my preferred choice.”