Academy Assistant Manager Gary Meechan was delighted with ‘a night of positives’ as a Warriors Development side beat The Army U23s 62-5 at Sixways Stadium.
Jonny Arr (2), Charlie Fellows (2), Earl Collins (2), Matt Cox, Mike Penn, Louis Silver and Andy Short all crossed the whitewash on the evening in front of a big crowd of 1,400.
Meechan was pleased with the showing and that so many of the younger Academy products had been able to get some game time and a chance to impress on the stadium pitch.
“The challenge for the side was to play as a team and to put together a performance on the back of the game with Leicester Tigers two weeks earlier,” he said.
“It was predominantly the same players that started for Warriors on this occasion that had faced Leicester Tigers so there was an opportunity to endorse the values that are important to us in the Academy.
“We started to ring the changes during the second half; we had a very experienced back three which enabled us to bring on some youngsters.
“We had 12 replacements and all of them got on the pitch with a minimum of 15 minutes of game time, which is ideal for their individual development.
“In the second half we also had 11 of the 15 players on the field who were Under-19s. Some were playing for the first time as a Warrior – and not necessarily for the last time judging by that performance.
“It was a night of positives. The commitment shown by each and every one of the playing panel that played was terrific. The score also echoed the will and desire, as a group of youngsters, to play for the shirt and the guy next to them.
“Joe Garner, currently studying his first year at the University of Worcester, having spent the last two years within the AASE programme, played in the second row for us. It is a position he is not used to playing, but stuck to his task admirably.
“When I asked him what the major positive of the game was for him he said playing on the first team pitch – that just shows what it means to these players to be Warriors.”