Richard Hill has revealed how he is increasing the intensity on the training field to bring the best out of his Warriors – and has cancelled days off until his gets the performances he craves at Sixways.
Worcester travel to London Welsh on Sunday after (kick-off 2pm) in the RFU Championship determined to maintain an unbeaten record on the road this season.
Head Coach Hill acknowledges his squad faces a stern test against the Dragons who have yet to taste defeat on home soil.
In a bid to ensure his team cuts out the errors of recent games he has now upped the training schedule and that means days off are off until further notice.
“There will be no day off this week,” said Hill. “You get rewarded with time off if you are going well – if it is not going well you work harder at it.
“The sessions this week have been physically intense. We are trying to replicate more the situation on a match day and time off will be restricted until we get this right.
“The players accept it. They know full well that Cecil Duckworth, the directors and supporters expect us to perform better.
“We have got to perform in March and there is no doubt if we were just going through the league and thrashing teams I know what would happen – we would reach the play offs and suddenly slip up in a game because we would assume we would beat them comfortably. It would be difficult to keep the player’s feet on the ground.
“At the moment, out of all this, one thing is clear – nobody here thinks we have got a divine right to get promoted and we have a lot of work to do to get promoted.
“Everyone is working hard and concentrating. We are focused to ensure we train properly. In terms of the mental approach, no-one is taking anyone lightly.”
Hill admitted the training regime had now been brought forward in a bid to replicate encouraging training ground performances onto the field on match day.
He added: “Phil Davies and I have been putting lots of technical information and strategies to the players.
“We were hoping to gradually increase the intensity, rather than smashing lumps out of each other in September and October. We were trying to save the impact, save the bodies until we go into March.
“But we wanted to perform well early on in the season on the back of that. We are top of the league, but it is clear our performances are not as good as they should be.
“We have got to make sure the players replicate the intensity of a game in training. Training is very efficient, but come to the game we are not making that transition. As a coach, it is clear what the situation is. You bring your training in line with how you play.
“You get a referee in, get 1st XV against 2nd XV full contact, senior side against the Academy. They have to do the skills under pressure.
“They can do it unopposed or semi-opposed, it looks lovely in training. It is a different matter when they are breathing hard, things happen that you don’t expect and you have to react and make decisions under pressure.
“We are advancing our thinking and start to get more physical in training. As we get better to match day intensity you will see the players able to make those decisions better on the field.”