Saints take on Worcester at a packed Franklin's Gardens on the back of a 34-game unbeaten streak that took them to a league and cup double in National League One.

But with the likes of Rico Gear, Chris Latham and Greg Rawlinson in the Warriors side, Sunday will be a huge step up.

Mallinder has bulked his side up with 12 summer signings, with six of them in the starting 15, though there are no places for exciting talent Ben Foden or England hopeful Dylan Hartley.

And the Saints director of rugby declared: "We certainly don't want to be fighting relegation and worried about that.

"We've enjoyed pre-season, and now we are down to the proper part of the game. It is going to be tough, there are 11 other good sides. The Premiership has got to be our focus and we will put everything into doing well in it."

Saints have not beaten Worcester at home since the Warriors won promotion, but skipper Bruce Reihana and his team-mates will have revenge on their minds as it was the visitors who sent Northampton plummeting into division one.

But Worcester have not won on the opening day of the season since coming up four seasons ago and Mallinder will be looking to extend that sequence to make a mockery of bookies' predictions putting Saints at third favourite to go down.

"It is quite interesting looking at the predictions as most of them have us in the bottom three, so that is a good motivation for the team," said Mallinder.

"You can understand why people are predicting us to be there. We've been in the first division for a season and it took Harlequins quite a long time to get off the mark and Leeds struggled last season, so it is going to be interesting to see where we will end up.

"I won't be doing any predicting to be honest. We have got five very tough league games in September and at the end of this month we will have a better idea of where we are.

"We know we are a relatively young side. We had a very successful season last year, but this is going to be different. We are going to have to work hard for each other and we will see where we end up."