WITH eight players joining this summer, Malvern director of rugby Andy Longley expects his side to have a successful season in National Three Midlands.

The Spring Lane club’s campaign gets under way tomorrow with a tough trip to former National One League side Manchester (ko 3pm).

Despite conceding Malvern’s clash at Grove Park sounds like a tricky opener, Longley has demanded an improvement on last season’s ninth-placed finish.

Malvern’s pre-season programme concluded on Saturday with a 42-41 win over Newton Abbot.

The new players recruited by Malvern include ex-captain Ryan Watkins and former star Richard Hobbs.

Their ranks have been further bolstered by the signings of openside-flanker Adam Gwillam, Chris Oliver, loose-head prop David Wrighton and lock forward Andy Cannock.

Nick Byron and Chris Griffiths have joined from Bromsgrove and Worcester Wanderers respectively.

But number eight Griffiths is set to be out for four to six weeks with a fractured ankle.

Scrum-half Tom Longley will return tomorrow after recovering from a back injury.

Andy Longley said: “Manchester are a big club, they were in the Championship.

“They have been struggling for the last couple of years. It will be a typical first game of the season, the side that makes the fewest mistakes will win it. They are bound to be a good side. We’d like to be in the top four or five by Christmas and push on from there.

“But we’ve not really sat down and worked out what our end-of-season targets are yet.

“You can’t win the league by Christmas, but you can lose it by then.”

Tomorrow’s Malvern teams.

First team v Manchester (tomorrow, away – ko 3pm), travelling by bus, meet at Spring Lane at 10.30am and Ketch Hotel, Worcester, at 10.45am, from: J Tsang, M Humphreys, J Clark-Jones, A Cannock, M Murphy, R Gratwohl, C Edwards, P Rawle, T Longley, A Dixon, I Mustow, R Fleming, A Billig (c), J Bennett, O Meadows, J Baker, D Hughes, J Southall.

Second team v Worcester Wanderers II (home, ko 3pm), meet at Spring Lane at 1.30pm, from: D Wrightson, N Byron, J Thomas, D Smith, J Hynes, S Robinson, R Hobbs, R Nitman, C Oliver, J Doorbar, L Jenkins, G Fraser (c), J Hillier, N Potter-Farrent, L Milton, W Downes, D Irish, M Prosser, R Watkins.