Chairman planning re-energised return

Chairman Cecil Duckworth has vowed Warriors will bounce back and make a re-energised return to the Guinness Premiership – and urged fans to rally behind the club and the next stage of the Worcester story.

Mr Duckworth has reiterated his total commitment to the club in the wake of the painful defeat to Leeds Carnegie.

And the Sixways chief is now keen for the ‘fantastic’ supporters – many of whom travelled in huge numbers to Headingley – to back the team as they look to bounce back in style.

“I won’t walk away from this – the supporters know me well enough to know I am not a quitter,” he said.

“We have fantastic a support here and I hope they will stay with us and they will want to be a part of the future development of the club.

“Northampton proved you can keep the fans with you and I really hope ours stay with us. I truly believe we have that type of support here, they have travelled all over Europe with us and been here each week with us.

“They have been disappointed and I feel deeply sorry that we have not given them more joy during this season. But they are great people and I want them to support us right through this phase.

“The Championship is not easy – we are not taking anything for granted. But we have a lot of good players and have others coming through and I’m sure we will be back.”

Mr Duckworth insists the club will now rebuild for the planned assault on the Championship next season and follow the examples of Harlequins and Northampton.

He said: “We are all extremely disappointed and now we must rebuild and look forward.

“We plan to return within 12 months, as Northampton and Harlequins have done and as Bristol are looking to achieve at the current time, and be back in the Guinness Premiership.

“In the case of Northampton and Harlequins they came back re-energised and that would be, of course, what we intend doing.

“The club has made fantastic progress over the years, we have great facilities and a superb location,” he added.

“We also have many other reasons to be very proud. We have one of the biggest mini junior sections in the land here every week playing rugby, which is great to see, and some successful male and ladies teams – in fact the one has just got promoted to Midlands One West which is fantastic.

“We have fallen short this year, but this is the beginning of the beginning, not the end of the beginning.

“You are always bound to have regrets when things don’t go right. I was in industry for 40 years and we had our ups and downs.

“It is not so public when you are down as it is with rugby. Here you are on display every Saturday afternoon.

“But you have to stay strong, get over the difficulties and overcome them. We will bounce back “


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