Warriors played host to a coach, player and an administrator from the Lithuania Rugby Federation during a recent visit to Sixways.
Gediminas Marcisauskas, Lithuania’s Backs Coach, and national Captain Zygimantas Radzius both spent time watching Warriors’ players, coaches, analysts and medical staff prepare for the European Challenge Cup match in Pau.
While Marcisauskas and Zygimantas spent time in the Warriors’ playing department, Irmantas Kukulskis, General Secretary of the LRF, enjoyed a behind-the-scenes look at the commercial, communications operations and events teams of the Gallagher Premiership club.
“We want to say big thank you to all at Worcester Warriors for their patience, time and heart,” Kukulskis said.
“We hope that this is just the start of our friendship. It was a very good experience for all of us and we hope seeing how Warriors work on and off the pitch will be invaluable to us.”
The LRF was formed in 1961 but Lithuania played as part of the USSR until the country regained its independence in 1992.
Rugby has grown in the country since then and Lithuania are currently ranked 34th by World Rugby.
Although rugby in Lithuania is amateur they have produced one Premiership player in wing Jonas Mikalcius who trained with Warriors while he was studying at and playing for Hartpury College.
Having scored 27 tries for Hartpury in the 2015/16 season, Mikalcius joined Harlequins but his career was ended by a knee injury sustained playing sevens.