FORMER Worcester Warriors flanker Jake Abbott looks set to face the city’s leading amateur rugby club in the first match of the new season.

Abbott is the new player-coach at Bromsgrove who open their Midlands One West campaign at home to Worcester on September 2.

Worcester’s director of rugby Niall Crawford admits the city side would love to have Abbott in their own ranks.

Having finished bottom of National Three South West, Bromsgrove are  returning to the Midlands set-up.

“We are very much an amateur club at Worcester and Bromsgrove have recruited a high-profile name like Jake in a player-coach role,” said Crawford.

“We would like to have someone of Jake’s calibre playing at our club but we weren’t able to compete with Bromsgrove in that sense.”

Worcester are now known as Worcester Rugby Club after dropping Wanderers from their handle.

Their players have reported back for pre-season training and are being put through their paces on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Weston’s Fields.

And Crawford says Worcester’s head coach Jon Perks has high hopes for a good term after a promising end to the last campaign.

“Jon’s target is for us to be in the top three at Christmas and, having played at a level above this in the past, we want to have a crack at the national leagues again,” he said.

“But it’s a catch 22 situation when you are a membership club because you have to get the balance right between ambition and realism.”

Tim Pickard, an RFU community coach, is Worcester’s new forwards coach and Crawford is hoping he can “add some value”.

“It will be very competitive division with obviously Bromsgrove, Hereford, Dudley Kingswinford, Stourbridge Lions and Burton,” said Crawford.

“We will be playing a new team in Melbourne from Derbyshire.

“There are so many more local games so it gives people a chance to come up against players they have grown up with or played against at school level.”

Crawford added: “We start the season against Bromsgrove and finish it with a home match against them which could be quite a critical game.”

Worcester’s fixtures in Midlands One West:

SEPTEMBER 2, Bromsgrove (away); 9, Moseley Oak (home); 16, Burton (away); 23, Rugby Lions (home); 30, Camp Hill (away); OCTOBER 14, Stoke-on-Trent (home); 21 Dudley Kingswinford (away); 28, Stourbridge Lions (home); NOVEMBER 4, Hereford (away); 11 Sutton Coldfield (home); 25, Lutterworth (away); DECEMBER 2, Wolverhampton (home); 9 Melbourne (away); 16, Moseley Oak (away); JANUARY 6, 2018, Burton (home); 13, Rugby Lions (away); 20, Camp Hill (home); 27, Stoke-on-Trent (away); FEBRUARY 3, Dudley Kingswinford (home); 17, Stourbridge Lions (away); MARCH 3, Hereford (home); 10, Sutton Coldfield (away); 24, Lutterworth (home); APRIL 7: Wolverhampton (away); 14 Melbourne (home); 21, Bromsgrove (home).