Kvesic is excited to start ‘chapter two’ as they look to defend title.

Having defeated Bedford Blues 27-14 at Goldington Road to take silverware in their first season back from the dead, the ex-England flanker is aiming to lead his boyhood club back to the second tier summit.

Head coach Matt Everard and his staff have spent the summer hard at work bringing in talent to give the Warriors the best chance possible.

Charlie Chapman and Tom Savage are household names with top-level experience, and with their support, Worcester’s new captain thinks his side could go back-to-back.

Kvesic said: “Last year has happened now, and we've had a pre-season between then and now. We've had a really good pre-season under our belts, and we're now two weeks away from our first game.

“The group's in a really good spot, and I suppose, you know, for us, we're quite excited to get started with chapter two.

“Charlie Chapman has been brilliant through pre-season, and has obviously shown his class. We've also got some really young lads coming in who are literally fresh out of school.

“We've got a lad called Lochie Glackin, who's been brilliant for us as well, and then we've got the older, experienced boys, like Tom Savage. He's come in, and he's brought his experience and his knowledge as well and has shared that.”

Despite the need to move on, Warriors have also spent time reflecting on the magnitude of their achievement last season.

Everard was tasked with assembling a whole playing group, coaching staff and support team last summer.

This process led to inevitable hiccups. The lineout, in particular, was a bugbear at Sixways for both the fan base and the playing group.

However, with time, the players gelled brilliantly, allowing them to down the divisional giants Ealing Trailfinders in the play-off semi-finals.

Trailfinders, to that point, had won a perfect 26 out of 26, before a Jake Garside try in the last play of the game completed a memorable upset.

“I was very proud of what we achieved that year,” Kvesic admitted. “I think people might underestimate what it takes to get a club back up and running. The way we went through the season wasn't perfect, and we probably showed we were a new team.

“Coming into the play-offs, we really found our feet and came good at the end of them. The Ealing game was pretty mental. We have some very competitive blokes and some fantastic athletes in the team, who were hungry to get the ball back in the zero seconds we had left.

“That was one of those ones you'll look back on at the end of the career and be like, wow, that was actually pretty special, that was really cool.”

To defend their title, Warriors will once again have to get the better of an Ealing outfit who enter the campaign as favourites.

Having overcome last year’s teething problems, there will not be the same allowance for inconsistency amongst fans and coaches alike.

This could be a problem given key leaders like ex-captain Matt Rogerson and Grand Slam-winning scrum-half Lloyd Williams retired.

Yet their new leader believes chapter two will be a much smoother ride than chapter one.

Kvesic said: “We lost some really key people last year, and some guys retired as well. But it's the coach's job to bring in a new group of players, and they've settled in really well.

“We've replaced some of the experienced players as well, and we brought some really young, exciting lad in while trying to keep the squad quite similar.

“Having that strength and depth this year will help us over the course of the season.

“We lost some games where we were pretty disappointed with the outcome. Consistency is definitely something we spoke about, and we'll see a lot more of that naturally with the group now, with a year of rugby under its feet.”

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