For the Tigers open their campaign by hosting the club they beat in the last game of last season to stay in ND1 – Rotherham.

Having also beaten the Titans over at Clifton Lane last season, another victory would give the Tigers an unlikely hat-trick of wins over the Yorkshiremen.

“I'm really looking forward to the game,” said Tim Fourie: “we need to get stuck into them up front from the first whistle and get them rattled.

“They've had all summer to think about their last game when we beat them convincingly and you can bet Craig West will be using that to motivate them.

“They'll also have our two top try scorers from last season – Chris Briers and Jon Skurr. We know what they can do and they will be out to prove a point or two, so we just have to stop them from doing that. If we play to our strengths and our potential we can beat them.”

After a pre-season that saw the Tigers beat Wharfedale 14-33 away before going down 44-24 to a strong Sale Jets side last Friday night, Fourie already has a pretty good idea of his first starting line up.

“I'm still waiting to hear about the lads we're supposed to be getting from Leeds, so the squad virtually picks itself,” he said: “It will be from the 22 we had at Sale, along with Phil Gazzola, Chris Hall and Chris Wilkinson.

“There are one or two areas where I’ll have to think about things, but otherwise it’s pretty straight forward when it comes to a starting 15. The real headache comes with who to include on the bench.”

As for the way they will be play, he believes that will be dictated by the lessons learned from the pre-season friendlies.

“Against the Jets we were okay for the first 20 minutes but then we started making far too many mistakes. We missed passes and failed to maintain our width – we were too impatient. However, we stuck at it and finished strongly.

“The Jets were very confident and composed. When we put them under pressure they just weathered the storm and used their kicking game to push us back. Then in possession they used their pace and power to punch holes through our defence.

“In particular Andy Tuilagi broke tackles; flanker James Jones was aggressive and quick and put our back row and half-backs under pressure; the hooker Scott Lawson really put himself about and fly-half Andy Atkinson didn't let his first few missed kicks put him off. But you have to remember they train every day.

“What did it teach us? Well, we need to respect possession a lot more. When we get the ball we need to retain it for at least four or five phases. We need to show more composure in attack and make the opposition work a lot harder – defending takes more out of you than attacking.

“We also need to be smart in our management of the contact area; in particular we need to work on our leg drives and ball presentation. We also need to fall to ground how and when we want to, not when the opposition wants us to.

“We have to expand our kicking game. Playing attacking rugby is great, but there are times when you need to kick to alleviate pressure. At times because of the 100mph way we tend to play we bring pressure upon ourselves. So we need to be a bit more pragmatic and professional in our approach to dealing with pressure.

“When you are under the cosh you need to give yourself some breathing space and a good kicking game can do that; you can't run the ball for 80 minutes.

“To a man we are very enthusiastic when it comes to attacking play, but we need to marry that with a bit of thought. We need to be more patient and vary our play.”

FIVE players - including two ex-Tigers - will make their competitive debuts for Rotherham when they face Sedgley in the opening game of the new league season.

Chris Briers and Jon Skurr, who topped the try scoring charts for the Tigers last season, will start, along with fellow new boys Brad Hunt, Gregor Hayter and Tinus Du Plessis.

Another former Tiger, Jon Feeley, who also emerged top try scorer during his time at Park Lane, will start on the right wing for the Titans.

“The five new boys in the line-up have made a big impact in pre-season and they’ve earned their places,” Head Coach Craig West told the Titans' website .

“Gregor Hayter has had a calming influence in our line-out and Jon Skurr and Tinus Du Plessis will add an extra dimension to our back row.

“Preparations have been very positive but we’re under no illusions about the quality of the Sedgley Park side and we’ll have to be on top of our game.

"There were two or three close calls in selection and I could have named different players without weakening the team.

"There are players on the bench who can make an impact for us and that was something that we were lacking last season.”

Meanwhile the Tigers give league debuts to Peter Swatkins (wing), Richard Tafa (centre), Paul Wilcock (wing) and Ollie Cook (No 8), while giant lock Dean Williams starts on the bench.

SEDGLEY TIGERS           v            ROTHERHAM TITANS

Matt RILEY                15          Errie CLAASSENS
Peter SWATKINS            14          Chris BRIERS
Andy CRAIG                13          Brad HUNT
Richard TAFA              12          Tom ALLEN
Paul WILCOCK              11          Jon FEELEY
Phil JONES                10          Mike WHITEHEAD
Chris LECK                 9          Neil CHIVERS
Phil GAZZOLA               1          Stuart CORSAR
Jonny RODDAM               2          Nigel CONROY
Petrus DU PLESSIS          3          Ben PRESCOTT
Tim FOURIE                 4          Louis McGOWAN
Glen TOWNSON               5          Gregor HAYTER
Juan CROUS                 6          Barry JACOBSZ
Adam NEWTON                7          Tinus DU PLESSIS
Ollie COOK                 8          Jon SKURR

Alistair LIVESEY          16
Gareth ROBERTS            17
Danny GREENHALGH          18
Dean WILLIAMS             19
Dave LIVESEY              20
Chris WILKINSON           21
Chris HALL                22

TITANS replacements from:
Hugo HORN
Anton O’DONNELL
Mark CHIVERS
Sam RAVEN
Matt CHALLINOR
Tom BARLOW
Jonny WEST
Chad ERSKINE
Ryan BURROWS