BBC Sport assesses the prospects for each Premiership club as the 2024-25 season prepares for kick-off this week.
The 2024-25 Premiership season kicks off this Friday with a repeat of last season's final between Bath and champions Northampton Saints at the Recreation Ground.The new campaign starts weeks after a new financial deal was agreed that will see Premiership clubs paid £33m per season by the Rugby Football Union in a bid "to create world-leading English teams and thriving professional leagues".
Sale's surprise win at Saracens on the final day saw Bristol miss out on a top-four finish by just two points. Fans will want every possible point this term and luckily the Bears way lends itself well to try-scoring bonus points. If last season was the first campaign of Exeter 2.0, then Exeter version 2.1 will hope to make the play-offs this season.
For the new campaign, Welsh international signings Tomos Williams and Gareth Anscombe will give Gloucester a quality spine at half-back behind Zach Mercer at number eight. They have lost big players in Andre 'the Giant' Esterhuizen, Will Collier and Louis Lynagh and have vowed to invest in the talented youngsters coming through to give them a better shot at competing on two fronts.
Expect Leicester to become a nasty team again, a tag they have relished in the past. Cheika knows how to win in club and international rugby, and he has hinted at a slightly more open game than we might expect from a Tigers team. At the back end of last season Steve Diamond - a man known for squeezing the best out of small squads - took over coaching and recruitment. The club still finished bottom of the Premiership, winless and 27 points behind Gloucester in ninth.
Phil Dowson has added some new names too – mostly in the pack, with flanker Josh Kemeny arriving from Australia and lock Callum Hunter-Hill and prop Tom West from Saracens.
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