Head Coach Richard Hill has called on his Warriors to hit the floor running in the second leg of the RFU Championship final – and concentrate on winning the one-off game with Cornish Pirates.
Worcester take a nine-point lead into the sell-out televised encounter at Sixways tomorrow (Wednesday) after claiming a hard-fought 21-12 win in Penzance last week.
Hill is aware that fired-up Cornish Pirates will arrive keen to wipe out that advantage as soon as possible.
However, he has called on his Warriors to rise to the challenge, to repeat the impressive start they produced at the Mennaye Field, and put any thoughts of promotion to the back of their mind.
“There is no talk of the lead,” he said. “We are not talking about promotion or the nine points. This about one game and that is the beauty of winning the first tie.
“We haven’t got to fuss about anything else. The task is now clear and we have got to win the game.
“It was critical to get the win in the first leg. If you are coming back and you have lost by a point or two points then a lot of tactics start going through your head about kicking goals, kicking for corners or drop goals, you panic about conceding early points.
“The massive task was to go to Cornwall and win because that means here is just a normal game and we have to win.
He added: “The first 20 minutes was important at Pirates because the last two times we have played them we have been behind. It was critical to get a great start and going 8-0 up was exactly what we wanted to do.
“I was delighted with the first 20 and with pressure on them they made some errors which we don’t normally see and they kicked a lot of ball away.
“They got wise to that second half, though, and we only had one lineout. They choose not to kick for touch and we did the same thing that Pirates did by kicking a lot of ball to them.
“We have got a fair bit to work on to make sure we don’t fuel their strength which is their counter attack.”
Hill also insists the mood inside the camp is good and the squad are not feeling the pressure ahead of the big kick-off.
“There is no pressure on us,” he said. “We are very cool and very calm about it. I expect us to be ruthless and we want to win and put a performance in.
“We didn’t play anything like how we can play as a team last Wednesday. It was an ugly win and we did what we needed to do to win 21-12. We have got a huge amount to come if we really click.”