Premiership plans underway for Hill

Plans are already underway for Worcester Warriors as they prepare for a challenging season in the Aviva Premiership – with less than a month until pre-season kicks-off!

Worcester claimed the glory of the RFU Championship title after defeating Cornish Pirates with a final score of 25-20 on May 18.

After a very successful season at Sixways, winning all but one league game, Head Coach Richard Hill is already setting up his game-plan to keep his team in the Aviva Premiership for many seasons to come.

“A good start is essential,” said Hill. “You need to be highly prepared and as soon as you find out who your first opponent is, you must analyse them inside out and you’ve got to have a plan that’s going to beat them.

“If you get off to a good start, then it’s marvellous, and if don’t get off with a good start, then you’re in trouble.”

Exeter Chiefs were promoted to the top-flight last season, as Warriors went the other way, and have since secured eighth place out of twelve in the overall standings in the Aviva Premiership. And Hill knows they are a model to follow.

Hill added: “The first year is about survival and Exeter have done an absolute tremendous job. I don’t know how they’ve done as well as they’ve done, but they have – full credit to them – and we have got to look to repeat that.”

Hill, who began coaching the Sixways squad at the end of last season, has many years of experience in elite rugby after representing England internationally and coaching other rugby teams including Bristol Rugby. And he will look to use that knowledge to bring more success next season.

Hill explained: “You take any point you can do, you have to be mucky and you have to play teams that might not particularly like you. At Bristol we just battled through ninth out of twelve and the following year we finished third and got into the top four. It can be done and that’s what we’re hoping to do here.”

This year’s Rugby World Cup also takes place between September 9 and October 23, resulting in a number of high level international players being absent from Aviva Premiership games within the first six weeks of play. the importance of a strong start is therefore not lost on Hill.

“With it being a World Cup year, it does give us a slight advantage,” he concluded. “For the first six to eight games we’ve got to go absolutely flat out and make sure that we are very well protected.

“We will keep virtually the same squad together from this season and so we’re going to start with much better foundations. We can move on to do a lot more of the work that we need to do now in the Aviva Premiership.”

The Warriors return to training at the end of June in order to start preparing for next season – and Season Tickets are on sale now so you can enjoy every second of the top-flight action!

Call the Warriors Box Office on 01905 454183 or click on HERE for more information.


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