Head Coach Richard Hill revealed he was closing in on his selection to face Sale on the opening day of the season after narrow defeat to Argentina at Sixways.
Hill has been delighted by the manner of the performances against Melbourne Rebels, Plymouth Albion and Argentina in a tough pre-season schedule to date.
Worcester complete the friendly fixture list on Saturday when they face Cornish Pirates at Sixways (kick-off 5pm) and Hill revealed both Chris Pennell and Alex Crockett come feature in that match.
“I’m not too far off knowing what the starting line-up is,” admitted Hill. “I think the team in the second half against Pirates will be getting close to the team to face Sale.
“We have one or two injury doubts, Shaun Perry has a knock and I think one or two others will be bruised after the game with Argentina. Whether we can put the players out that we would like to I don’t know yet.
“There are also a couple of ex-Pirates players who want to do well, the likes of Sam Betty and Ben Gulliver, who will start against them and want to do well.
He added: “We put this pre-season together to really test ourselves so I hope it is going to stand us in good stead for the league campaign.
“The confidence we are drawing from these games is massive. I know we are disappointed to lose to Argentina, but to talk to the players after the game is was still a positive. There is knowledge that we have moved on a huge step from last year and there is still more to come.
“They have played against an international side in Argentina and we probably should have won that game. It’s disappointing and hopefully Sale will feel the brunt of that on September 3.
“We have some fine tuning to do, the lineout did not function as well as it normally does and that is an area of strength of ours.
“The key is getting the right selection and I think we are getting there. We are learning a lot about these players with every game that we play and we have one big game to come against Pirates at the weekend.”
Supporters are reminded that the Pirates game is part of the Warriors Open Day and so entrance is FREE to all. Open Day starts at 12noon with the game kicking off at 5pm.