Head Coach Richard Hill will recall powerhouse prop Tevita Taumoepeau and lock Greg Rawlinson for the RFU Championship away clash with Cornish Pirates on Sunday (kick-off 1pm).
Worcester return to league action after a three-week break for British & Irish Cup games during which Hill has put his players through a 'mini pre-season' training spike to ensure the team is in top condition for the play-offs.
Victory at The Mennaye would confirm top spot for Worcester in the league standings and Hill will call upon his big guns for the big clash in Cornwall.
“I will be bringing Tevita into the team at tighthead,” he said. “He has had a couple of games for us recently but he was a slightly different case as for about four weeks over the festive period he had a virus.
“He needed a bit of game practice and I couldn’t put him straight into a strength and conditioning programme, because then he wouldn’t have played for about six or eight weeks.”
“Alex Grove is away with Scotland so he will miss the next two weeks for us. He will be back for London Welsh, unless Andy Robinson calls him into the six Nations team. Graham Kitchener will also be away with England Saxons.”
Hill added: “It is now a case of getting the players in the right frame of mind for these last four games, the last push towards the play-offs. We don’t just want to drift in.
“We know we have only got to win one more game out of the last four to be guaranteed top spot and top seed. We are in a slightly different situation to other clubs and must try to get the players to know how to approach these last four games and to keep driving on.
“We are trying to drive the standards up in these four games to really put in even better performances. To keep the momentum going that we have had since Doncaster away, we have got continuity with selection and we must look to play even better.”
“If the Pirates game was in the play-offs, I definitely wouldn’t have given the first-choice 22 three weeks without rugby. Rustiness is a slight concern, but we knew that would be an issue, so it will be interesting to see how they perform. I don’t anticipate it to be a problem.”