The gauntlet laid down to every Warriors player this weekend is to continue building momentum towards the key Guinness Premiership Christmas clash with London Irish – and to write their names on John Brain’s teamsheet with a performance to impress against Albi in the ERC Challenge Cup Pool 5 match tomorrow.
The Sixways director of rugby has seen enough of the newly-promoted French team to know their game’s based “fairly and squarely” on muscle, meaning a physical lineout and heavily-contested breakdown will be the order of the afternoon.
He names five changes to the line-up that started last Saturday’s 23-10 victory over Newport Gwent Dragons. Dale Rasmussen returns at centre after a calf injury, with Miguel Avramovic switching inside and Thomas Lombard starting on the bench. Phil Murphy comes in for Tim Collier in the second row, while Thinus Delport replaces the injured Aisea Havili on the right wing, having played for the World XV against the South Africans at the Walker Stadium last Sunday.
Drew Hickey – among the walking wounded against Dragons – is replaced at Number 8 by captain Kai Horstmann, with Will Bowley starting at blindside flanker. And Shane Drahm starts at fly-half, with James Brown switching to full-back in place of the injured Lee Best.
Alongside Lombard and Collier on the bench are Pat Sanderson – who pulls on a Warriors jersey for the first time in seven matches – and Aleki Lutui. The replacements also feature Jamie Lennard, following his impressively assured performance at full-back in foul conditions for the A Team on Monday night.
“We know Christmas is going to be important,” Brain says, “and we don’t want a drop-off in performance. That’s the key thing. It’s important the players who are likely to be involved in the Christmas programme get adequate game time in the next two weeks.
“Obviously, we’d like to build on what we’ve achieved. The more you win, the more your confidence grows. Albi will make it extremely difficult for us but, if we can build on the last two games, there’s no reason why we can’t win, and win well.”
The medial ligament strain suffered by Gavin Quinnell in the Dragons match has provided Will Bowley with his chance to shine, and others will be expected to step up to the plate if the call comes in the next few weeks.
“Gavin’s likely to be out for around six weeks,” Brain adds. “I’ve seen the incident on video and, to be honest, I expected it to be worse than it is. He’s a big player in every sense, but we just have to get on with it and I’m sure we will.
“When a player like him is injured, it presents the chance for others. You’ve got the obvious names but, behind them, there are others. James Collins is unavailable this weekend, but he’s a promising player, and Tom Wood has a lot of potential. Christmas might throw up an opportunity for one of those.”
Team: 01 Darren Morris, 02 Chris Fortey, 03 Tevita Taumoepeau, 04 Phil Murphy, 05 Craig Gillies, 06 Will Bowley, 07 Tom Harding, 08 Kai Horstmann (c), 09 Matt Powell, 10 Shane Drahm, 11 Mark Tucker, 12 Miguel Avramovic, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 14 Thinus Delport, 15 James Brown
Replacements: 16 Callum Black, 17 Aleki Lutui, 18 Tim Collier, 19 Pat Sanderson, 20 Ryan Powell, 21 Jamie Lennard, 22 Thomas Lombard