Though the 2015 Rugby World Cup quarter-finals naturally attract global attention, this weekend also presents the opening matches in the 2015-2016 Premiership season.

Before even starting, the English domestic season has already been dramatically affected by the global tournament as it caused the opening round of fixtures to be put back by six weeks.

Moreover, the shock early exit of England after Pool A defeats to Australia and Wales should mean greater scrutiny on the Premiership for players to aid the drooping White Rose.

Ed Slater was in the England Rugby World Cup 2015 training squad, making the Leicester Tigers captain a natural person to ask about the national side at the Premiership season launch.

“Obviously the England guys that played in the Rugby World Cup have gone through a difficult time, it is disappointing for them as they worked extremely hard. I only scratched the surface as I was there for just three weeks.

“I will now be playing to try to get into that England squad through my form for Leicester this season.”

The Tigers are without silverware in their last two seasons, though Slater maintains that the weight of expectation to win is unrelenting regardless of this.

“I don’t think that the pressure is building because it has always been there. When you play for Leicester you know the expectations when you arrive.

“These ambitions are why players want to play for us. Because of the success we have had and that is what the club is built on.

“There is always pressure in a Leicester shirt for me and it will be no different this year — there will not be time for bedding in and it will not be a transitional period.

“New coach Aaron Mauger has changed our game plan with ideas we have worked on now for 3-4 months — we are quite confident and have made some good signings.”

Leicester will face tough competition, particularly from Northampton, Bath and defending champions Saracens with these considered the traditional top four.

However, such stereotypes are unfair on Exeter Chiefs, who came fifth last season only due to winning less matches than Saracens or Leicester in an impressive campaign.

England winger Jack Nowell and centre Henry Slade are both Exeter players starting to show their class on the international stage, helping the Chiefs gain top-six finishes in three of the last four seasons.

This has brought European Cup rugby to Sandy Park, something director of rugby Rob Baxter considers central to the Chiefs future.

“I expect us to be a very competitive side. We are looking to try and become a regular top-six team because European rugby is very important.

“It helps us both as a club and our individual players to develop in our style of rugby and those fixtures are fantastic for our supporters too.

“I think if you look at how competitive the Premiership is at the moment, if you’re in the top six you’re going to be very close to the top four.

“I’d love to be where we were last season, always within touching distance of the top four as that keeps the whole season exciting.”

London Wasps hold similar aims to Exeter this season, with Sale, Gloucester and Harlequins also expected to compete for a top-half spot.

Wasps are enjoying a return to European rugby this season after narrowly missing out in 2013-2014, with director of rugby Dai Young seeking to make them regular top-half finishers.

“The ambition is to keep progressing. We want to consistently be in the top-six, which gives us European rugby.

“To retain your best players and attract new players you need to be playing in the top competitions and Europe is the best one, so that is a big goal.

“If we can start chasing the top four down that becomes our target, though that is probably more of a two-season target.”

Regular European rugby must have seemed miles away when Young took over in 2011-2012 and helped the club only just avoid relegation.

Four seasons on and incremental improvement has come under the Welshman, who also dismissed criticism of the controversial move from Adams Park to the Ricoh Arena.

“How can people talk about being sustainable when at Adams Park we had crowd of 3,500 and at Coventry we average over 15,000? It is pretty unfounded really.

“We know it’s a responsibility for us, to the fans, to keep on performing and we do it for them as much as we do it for us.”

A side with less lofty ambitions are newly promoted Worcester Warriors, who reached the top flight with a 59-58 aggregate play-off victory over Bristol across two legs.

The late try from Chris Pennell and Ryan Lamb’s conversion to secure victory was absorbing viewing, though questions remain about how Worcester will adopt to Premiership life, particularly after a winless London Welsh went straight back down last season.

Worcester directory of rugby Dean Ryan admitted a sizeable divide certainly exists between the two Leagues and that his side must learn quickly to make the step up to survive.

“The emotion of getting out of the Championship and an awfully long pre-season means we are not too sure of our level currently.

“We have to go and play to find our current level and the lessons we need to learn to try to close that gap from the Premiership to Championship.

“This is everything we have waited for. We have players who were frustrated at other clubs by not getting enough games — some were told they were not necessarily Premier League quality so we are excited for the challenges that lie ahead.”