Worcester Warriors are intent on going one better than last season – and last season’s European Challenge Cup finalists know just how important home advantage will be in April’s quarter-finals.
Warriors are safely through to the last eight with a six-point cushion at the top of Pool 3 but now the challenge against Petrarca Rugby at Sixways on Saturday is to try and be one of the four best Pool winners.
The club is through to the tournament’s knock-out stages for the third time in the five seasons they have been involved and are eyeing Euro glory.
“Obviously we have done our maths and we know that to get a home quarter-final we are going to need to win with a try bonus point and five tries more than Brive can get on Thursday – and that is a big challenge,” said Mike Ruddock, Director of Rugby.
“The difficulty with a situation like this is that if you go out thinking about getting bonus points and racking up tries there is the risk that you don’t respect your opponents enough and it ends up being a banana skin for you.
“Petrarca beat Bourgoin home and away, which is something we didn’t manage to do, so you have to respect them as serious opposition.
“So we will focus on improving our game from how we played against Bucuresti Oaks last weekend.
“We got six tries but we could have performed better and we’ll be looking to improve our cohesion and build the game on Saturday instead of getting carried away with the permutations.
“We had a really good game out in Petrarca. The weather conditions lent themselves to an open game and we moved the ball around well, which suits our style of play, with Chris Latham scoring a couple of great tries in a really positive performance.
“Having said that, in all probability the weather conditions over here are not going to lend themselves to a fast pace so I think it will be a much more physical forwards game than our first encounter.
“Our pack has been very strong and their set pieces will be vital but if we get the opportunity, we are definitely going to look to shift the ball wide.
“However, our injury problems have been compounded since we last played Petrarca. In addition to the loss of Sam Tuitupou with a knee ligament injury earlier in the season, Chris Pennell picked up exactly the same injury in the Bucuresti game last week and his season is over.
“Added to the absence of Marcel Garvey, Miles Benjamin and Matthew Jones, we are under pressure in the backs but Hal Luscombe had a great first game for us last week so that has given us a boost.
“The upside of our injury problems is the way in which some of the youngsters have taken up the challenge. Although they are still learning, Joe Carlisle and Charlie Fellows have both shown a lot of skill and a great rhythm of play and Alex Grove has also been playing very well. They have really stepped up to the plate and that has been a real bonus.”