Exeter have added 11 new players to their squad over the summer

By Phil Tuckett BBC Sport

After 13 years of endeavour in the second tier of English rugby, Exeter Chiefs will take their bow as a Premiership side against Gloucester at Sandy Park on Saturday, 4 September.

By beating Bristol over two legs in May's Championship play-off final, Exeter became the first club from the South West of England to gain a coveted spot in the sport's top flight.

It has been a source of frustration to many in the region, long recognised as a rugby hot-bed, as to why it has taken so long for one of their teams to make the step up.

And even Exeter chief executive Tony Rowe confessed he struggled to come to terms with their achievement until he saw confirmation in black and white.

"I didn't quite believe we were in the Premiership until one day when I received an email with the fixture list and the first game was Gloucester, and the second Leicester," Rowe told BBC Spotlight.

"To be honest we didn't expect [head coach] Rob [Baxter] and his guys to get us into the Premiership in his first year in charge," he added.

But as Baxter celebrated promotion only a year after taking on the top job, the even bigger challenge lying in wait was becoming apparent - with the Chiefs rapidly, and roundly, labelled as favourites for the drop.

Only two clubs - Leeds and Worcester - have broken into the top flight for the first time in the last decade and although they have enjoyed mixed fortunes both have suffered relegation.

But Exeter are facing a double handicap as Premiership newcomers this season.

Firstly there is the well-documented disparity in funding whereby promoted clubs receive a basic sum in the region of £1.2m, whereas an established side will stand to pick up a figure closer to £2m as a reward for building the Premiership brand.

In addition, due to the Championship play-off final being played in May, Exeter were weeks behind their new opponents in starting their recruitment drive.

The play-off format has come in for criticism for the way it disadvantages the upcoming team but Chiefs head coach Baxter is not one to complain.

"That's just the way it is - you just have to get on with it," he told BBC Spotlight.

"I've always said that the biggest part of our recruitment was the fact that we retained so many of the squad that played for us at the end of the season."

Sandy Park has seen 11 new faces arrive this summer, with the former Bath pair of Andrew Higgins and Ryan Davies two of the most high-profile signings.

"I think we have strengthened the squad with the players we've brought in," added Baxter.

"And, if we need to, we can strengthen further. It's not like there's no money to add players."

Such an approach demonstrates Baxter's pragmatism and he will doubtless need nerves of steel to remain calm over the nine months ahead.

The player-turned-coach has been widely praised for his tactical acumen, typified by the manner in which he ensured his side peaked at exactly the right time last season to defeat Bristol, despite trailing them for much of the campaign.

"If my job was to suddenly be here and panic and be daunted by it all, then I should never have taken the job in the first place," he said.

"It's going to be tough, but you shouldn't be playing in the Premiership if you're not prepared to get your hands dirty."

One of the men Baxter will look to over the course of next season is 26-year-old full-back Luke Arscott, a player who spent three seasons in the English elite with Bristol before their relegation in 2009.

"It's nice to be going back and playing in the Premiership again, but it's obviously going to be a huge challenge," he said.

"The thing I can bring to the side that the boys don't have is that little bit of experience of playing Premiership rugby."

Arscott added: "Hopefully if we can perform to the best of our ability then we can pick up a number of wins along the way."

But those wins may well prove harder to come by than members of the Chiefs tribe would like.

The bookmakers have hardly thrown their support behind the league's new boys, with most making them odds-on favourites for relegation.

"The realism is that staying up would be an achievement," Baxter remarked.

"But I think the ambitions of the club and the ambitions of the playing staff are that we'd like to be a little bit better than that."

Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder knows exactly what it takes to prosper in the Premiership having guided the Saints to the play-offs last season, only two years after gaining promotion back into the top flight.

"The Premiership is a world apart from the Championship, both in terms of standards of play, but also in what is expected of you as a club," Mallinder told BBC Sport.

"Every game is difficult and there are top quality players at every club."

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Northampton will be one of the few Premiership sides to have already played a competitive match at Sandy Park, so the unfamiliarity of the Chiefs' impressive ground should be an advantage to the Devon side.

"The pitch and facilities at Sandy Park are Premiership standard, but the stadium is on top of a hill and can be very windy," Mallinder added.

"The fans create an intimidating atmosphere as well, they're noisy and close to the pitch on every side."

There can be no doubt that Exeter face an Herculean challenge to survive their first Premiership season but, as Mallinder states, with the right ingredients anything is possible.

"You need a mixture of quality, experience, luck and belief and you need to believe that you deserve to be there and can compete."

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