Mike Ruddock has spoken of his delight after revealing his Worcester Warriors will take on his former club Ebbw Vale in an additional free admission pre-season friendly at Sixways Stadium on Saturday, August 22 – that will also form part of the Warriors Open Day.
Director of Rugby Ruddock previous coached the south Wales club between 2000 and 2003 before moving to take control of the Welsh national side.
Warriors will now tackle the Welsh side – known as The Steelmen – as part of the club’s free admission Open Day and Ruddock is looking forward to facing his old roots.
“Further to our previous announcement over our pre-season friendly games, I had a request from a club I previously coached, Ebbw Vale, who wanted to know if we would like a pre-season game at Sixways Stadium,” said Ruddock.
“Given that we were already planning an Open Day for that date, it seemed to be a very useful opportunity to dovetail the day when we open the doors to fans with a free admission game for everyone.
“We have looked to develop links with Ebbw Vale and so I’m delighted to confirm that our Open Day on August 22 will also incorporate a further pre-season game against them.
“It will be great to see Ebbw Vale at Sixways and hopefully a good crowd will turn out to see us take on such a proud and traditional club in what will be a key part of our pre-season plans.”
Ebbw Vale boss Steve Lewis, whose squad are hoping to improve on their 10th place finish in last year’s Principality Premiership, said: “Worcester play the Dragons on the Friday night and have agreed to play the rest of their squad against us on the Saturday. It will provide us with a really tough test, which is just what we need a week before the season starts.
“This is a tremendous privilege for the club and opportunity for our players and we hope that many of our loyal fans will make the trip to Sixways to support the team, make new friends and renew old acquaintances.”