Leicester Tigers will be ready for the battle of defending their Aviva Premiership title, says director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
The champions claimed their 10th Premiership crown with victory over Northampton Saints in May.
Tigers are back in pre-season training ahead of the new campaign, which starts in the first weekend of September.
Cockerill warned they will not be resting on former glories as they look to do it all over again.
"We go into the season as champions but our mentality will be to start from scratch," said Cockerill. "We are all equal, and we all go in on an equal footing and we've got to do it all again.
"It's groundhog day. It's a new season but we will have the same problems.
"We will get to the autumn and the Six Nations and we will have half our team missing. But we will go wherever we have to go and we'll have to try to win.
"We will be more than up for the battle and we are looking forward to it."
Tigers could go into the first nine games of the season without their director of rugby, who has been banned for nine weeks for "inappropriate behaviour" towards fourth official Stuart Teerheege during the Premiership final at Twickenham.
Tigers have been given an extension until 9.45am a week tomorrow to decide on whether to appeal the decision.
The Mercury understands that the club are unhappy with elements of the RFU's presentation of the case and want the independent disciplinary panel to have a look at those before they determine whether to appeal or not.
Tigers refused to comment on the situation, while the RFU said they had "no objections" to the extension.
The main focus for Cockerill at the moment, however, is the build-up to the new season, which starts with the visit of Worcester to Welford Road on Saturday, September 8.
This followed by a trip to Bath, a home clash with Dean Richards' Newcastle and a journey to Devon to face Exeter on the last weekend of the month.
"We won't be going around the country saying the champions are in town – we've just got to do what we do," he said.
"That was last season, that's done, great, tick the box, that's history.
"But it doesn't get you any points in the league for next season. You don't start with an extra 10 points because you're champions.
"The really important thing is to forget last season and not rest on our laurels – it's about getting this season right because if you don't, you will become unstuck because it's a very difficult competition.
"I say it every year, there will be 12 clubs that are really optimistic and say this is going to be their best season.
"They think they will have done well in recruitment, that it has been their best pre-season and that they've trained really well.
"There will be some twists and turns and tails. I have no doubt about that.
"It's important that everyone has enjoyed a bit of downtime but now we start pre-season and we start to build and we don't get too far ahead of ourselves."
