Warriors Academy are back in action on Monday night when they face the Army U23 at Sixways Stadium (kick-off 7.30pm) – and the game is free to all supporters.
Ahead of the Academy game we caught up with Gary Meechan, Academy Assistant Manager, who gave us this insight into the latest round of Monday Night rugby at Warriors.
The last home game for the Development Squad against Leicester heralded our best team performance since the season began. It is difficult to get consistency and continuity on the pitch if the guys are unable to train and play together on a regular basis. The ability to train as a team, and work to a specific game plan is important in the lads development, and often we are unable to do that due to the differing levels that they all train at. I am looking forward to Monday’s game for that reason; we have the opportunity of playing three fixtures over the next month, firstly against the Army U23, then Cambridge University and the Dragons, creating a focus towards the last A league fixture of 2009 against a very strong Falcons team on December 7.
Before we played Leicester we set a collective challenge to the team and to all the individuals within it, and they rose to the task admirably and executed the game plan quite well. We defended and attacked well in the first half, one and one and as a unit; this enabled us to play with the ball in our hands and with our heads up without the added pressure of chasing the game. There were some really good individual performances, but they only added to the team challenge, our scrummage and lineout held well and gave us the platform to run at Leicester, I thought our back row was outstanding, having said that we also had some guys playing out of position and they demonstrated amazing work ethic and determination to keep us in contention.
We allowed Leicester back into the game during spells within the second half, and this was inevitable as we made some wholesale changes. I now that it can be difficult to accept, but it is important that we do get the guys on for as much time as possible, and fingers crossed that it doesn’t have too much of a detriment to the overall game, but I don’t feel that it did, Leicester were a strong team that plays a lot of rugby together, and I think it would have been conceited to believe that they would not display that at sometime during the game, the guys who came on faced a number of different challenges to the starting 15, and sometimes that’s how it works, it’s all part of their learning!
With an eye back on Monday, the Army U23 will be tough, and due to the age restrictions it does limit who can play, but I feel fortunate that all the guys selected will be keen to reiterate their previous performance and give the supporters the spectacle they deserve. The Worcester support was fantastic against Leicester and I dearly hope that we will see the same levels on Monday and throughout the rest of the season, our intention as always, is to acknowledge everyone who turns up, and thank them in the best way we can, by winning.
Enjoy tonight’s game – Meech
Entry to tonight’s game at Warriors is free of charge so come along and back the next generation of Warriors!
Team news will be announced later on Monday at www.warriors.co.uk