Worcester will take on top flight new boys London Welsh if they reach the finals of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Premiership Rugby 7s at the Rec after the Exiles booked their place by winning the Sale leg of the competition.
The Warriors enter the competition this Thursday at Kingsholm, where they will face Gloucester, Bath and Exeter in a bid to reach the finals on August 3rd.
But on Friday night it was Welsh, along with Sale, who secured their place in the final six with a string of impressive displays.
An opening win over the Sharks was followed up by big wins over Northampton and Leicester as the Exiles finished the evening with three out of three bonus point successes.
Aaron Myers – who won the competition with Newcastle a year ago – was named player of the round, but it was a great team effort from Welsh that saw them through with ten members of their squad scoring on the night.
And while Myers was only appearing as a guest from current club Wharfedale, he admitted it was a relief to be part of the competition once again.
Myers said: “I was so disappointed that Newcastle had gone down because I wanted to be involved in the competition again. With the way it happened at Welsh, this tournament got landed on them and they needed to put a side together so I expressed interest in playing to one of [team manager] Terry Sands’ colleagues and then he rang me up and asked me to play.
“It’s good to be back and be the only person who can retain the trophy. I’m flying the flag in a way for Newcastle.
“We’ve only trained once so we’ve got a lot of work to do but we’ll get together, do a couple more training sessions and I think we can be a threat. But seeing the stuff from the first leg there are some strong teams out there so it will be a challenge.”
Sale were the other team to catch the eye on the final night at Edgeley Park, securing their place in the top two in the last game against Northampton.
Having fallen to a 31-19 opening defeat to Welsh, they hammered Leicester 50-5 before overcoming Saints 36-14 in the final game.
There was some comfort for Northampton though as they beat the Tigers 26-24 in the closest game of the night thanks to Ryan Glynn’s conversion of Jack Allcock’s late try.
To buy tickets for the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Premiership Rugby 7s Series visit: www.jpmorgan7s.com or call 08448 472 492