Anthony Eddy has sounded a note of caution to anyone who thinks Worcester Warriors’ Guinness Premiership trip to Leicester, on Saturday, will be made easier by the absence of so many Tigers on international duty.
Warriors have selected a strong side and go to Welford Road confident that they can return with their first Premiership victory of the season.
“Once we play with more consistency and are more clinical, our game will go from strength to strength and we’ll be able to put any team in the league under pressure,” says the Sixways head coach. “It’s a matter of being very precise with our execution.
“Leicester have a few players out, but they have such strength that they replace them with other internationals from other countries. You have to play them at some stage, so this weekend is as good as any.”
The Warriors team shows three changes from the line-up that started the last Premiership match against Gloucester, three weeks ago. With Pat Sanderson on England duty against New Zealand this weekend, Drew Hickey comes in at Number 8 with stand-in captain Kai Horstmann switching to blindside.
Craig Gillies returns from injury in place of Richard Blaze in the second row, while Simon Whatling replaces centre Dale Rasmussen, who completes his three-match ban this weekend.
Team: 01 Lee Fortey, 02 Aleki Lutui, 03 Chris Horsman, 04 Craig Gillies, 05 Phil Murphy, 06 Kai Horstmann (c), 07 Tom Harding, 08 Drew Hickey, 09 Ryan Powell, 10 Shane Drahm, 11 Mark Tucker, 12 Simon Whatling, 13 Thomas Lombard, 14 Aisea Havili, 15 Lee Best
Replacements: 16 Darren Morris, 17 Ben Gotting, 18 Phil Murphy, 19 Gavin Quinnell, 20 Matt Powell, 21 James Brown, 22 Thinus Delport