Chris Pennell is looking forward to coming up against old friends Matt Mullan and Ed Shervington this Sunday as Warriors take on Wasps at the Ricoh Arena (kick-off 2pm).
Warriors have been competitive week in week out throughout this Aviva Premiership campaign, which has seen them beat Northampton Saints and Newcastle Falcons, as well as picking up points from their last two encounters with Bath Rugby and Harlequins.
And full-back Pennell is relishing the chance to step out at the Ricoh for the first time against some of his former teammates, where a Warriors win could see them leapfrog the hosts in the table.
He said: “I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be a different challenge for us. Wasps are extremely well-drilled, they have some big ball-carriers and they do like to play with ball in hand.
“It’ll also be interesting coming up against some old friends so we’ll fire out a few texts to wind them up a bit and look forward to catching up with them post-game.
“The fact we can go above them in the table is an incentive but we’re not particularly focused on that. We have a big opportunity to go out and give a good account of ourselves and if that means we climb above them in the table then it would be fantastic.”
The Warriors centurion has paid tribute to his wingers Bryce Heem and Cooper Vuna in an exciting backline that has contributed to Warriors being fourth-highest tryscorers in the Premiership this season.
He stated: “It’s great having Bryce and Cooper alongside me in the back three. Those boys can do stuff with ball in hand that not many others can.
“They’ve shown in the last few weeks that they are extremely dangerous and when they go off on one of their runs it opens up the doors elsewhere for our attack.
“They’re both massively important and we’re really lucky at this Club that we’ve got some real quality waiting in the wings if required.”
Pennell also lifted the lid on Warriors’ superb second-half display against Harlequins last week as they almost completed a dramatic turnaround.
He added: “Dean gave us a bit of hairdryer treatment which was required. We’d been superb this season in terms of our energy and enthusiasm but that was the thing that was really lacking so we got a deserved telling off.
“There was a strong response in the second-half from the boys and we performed very well after the break to get ourselves back in the game and it could have been a lot more than just a bonus point.”