New boss relishing Sixways challenge

Worcester boss Richard Hill has revealed his determination to bring success back to Sixways Stadium after spending his first few weeks in charge of Warriors information gathering to plan the way forward.

Hill took over the Worcester hot seat at the end of May and will meet up with the squad for the first time on Monday as the players report back for pre-season.

The new Head Coach is keen to start moulding his new-look team and has spoken about realising the huge potential at the club.

“The first few weeks, for me, has been about getting an understanding of what has gone on, what has worked and hasn’t worked and people’s views on what they would like changing,” he said.

“It has been a massive information gathering time and a fascinating insight into the club. Now, for the next week or so, I will sit down and work out exactly what I am going to do to change things to improve the structure and manner of play. To decide what is best for Warriors.

“We have a very good squad and I am delighted that most of the players have stayed – that is very important.

“There is a huge amount that is very good about this club. Walk anyone around and it is much better than the vast majority of clubs.

“With the facilities, staff and players, there is a lot here that is very good. That is why to the outside world, and myself included, it has always been a little bit of a mystery why Worcester have not really achieved the heights that it certainly looks like from the outside that it should. My role is to find the answer to that.”

Worcester will launch their league bid on the weekend of August 28 against Birmingham & Solihull and Hill has promised his Warriors will not underestimate the size of the task ahead of them.

“It is big challenge in the Championship,” said Hill. “There is no doubt that, since I was last here with Bristol, the standard has improved.

“There are some high quality teams that we cannot underestimate, good players and ambitious coaches who are delivering some very up-to-date modern methods.

He added: “I want a squad of 33 to work with. I have one more to add in the backs to add and then we will have a very powerful squad.

“I’m going to work things slightly differently to how it was last year, as I understand there was a larger group training together with a lot of the lads just coming out of the academy working with them too.

“That often meant 40-plus players working with the first-team squad and I find that too many. We’ll have a slightly different system where we have a squad of 33 senior players which I will work with.

“You’ll always have a couple of injuries so in practice it is less than 33 – ideally 30, so we can have 15 versus 15.

“Then there will be an intermediate group in between the seniors and the academy, which will be a bit of a cross-over and people from that group will slot into the first-team as and when there are injuries.

“The likes of Miles Benjamin, Graham Kitchener, Marcel Garvey, Willie Walker and Chris Pennell are definitely in that first team group of 33 and will be here full-time.”

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