Officials at Harrogate Rugby Union Club are feeling confident going into the new season.

They have had several confidence-building pre-season successes after a shaky start to the summer.

First-team manager Graham Siswick told BBC Radio York: "Things have been a little bit traumatic earlier on with financial difficulties.

"But once we got into the season itself we're feeling pretty good about things at the moment and raring to go."

He added: "We've probably lost about five players, I think, in total but we've brought six or seven in and there's no doubt we've got a somewhat stronger squad than we had last year.

"So there's a lot of optimism about, especially getting a few promising performances building up to the beginning of the season."

Getting ready for the start of the National One North division, Harrogate have enjoyed a series of wins, taking particular encouragement from their defeat of Blaydon in a pre-season friendly.

It's difficult to put an exact target on it but we've certainly got a lot of potential Graham Siswick

"We've started off with a seven-a-side tournament at Scarborough which we won and then we've played Pontefract, Darlington Mowden Park and Blaydon and we've got three victories there which is great for us," said Siswick.

"To beat Blaydon was very satisfying. This time last year they gave us a real hiding so hopefully that shows a good proportion of improvement since this time last year."

Siswick expects to do better in the league than last year but is aware there is plenty of competition.

"It's difficult to put an exact target on it but we've certainly got a lot of potential. It's a question of whether we can realise that but the boys are in a very positive frame of mind," he added.

"I think there's going to be competition for sure, there's bound to be, but I think given a fair crack of the whip with injuries and things like that I think we're going to be pushing certainly for an improvement on our fifth position last year."

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