Simon Amor is preparing for his toughest season yet in charge of London Scottish in the Championship.

Scottish were this week handed a tough opening day game against newly promoted Ealing Trailfinders in a double header match at Saracens’ Allianz Park on the weekend of September 13.

Their first home game will be against Nottingham on the weekend of September 27, while they face derby games with Welsh on the weekends of December 20 and March 28, and finish at home to Bristol on April 25.

And with Welsh having come down from the Premiership and Ealing up from National One, director of rugby Amor expects Scottish’s third season back in the second tier of English rugby to be their most difficult.

“This will be the hardest year yet,” he said.

“The standard has been going up so much and in the past two years we have definitely seen a rise in the quality of teams – everyone has taken a step forward.

“With London Welsh coming down and Ealing Trailfinders coming up it has made it even harder – and Ealing first up is a very big challenge. It’s an exciting one for us and the opening day double-header will be new for everyone.”