Warriors Women wing Lydia Thompson has hailed the appointment of Jo Yapp as Director of Rugby.
Thompson, who was one of 28 players awarded full-time England contracts earlier this month, made her first start of the season in the defeat to Gloucester-Hartpury on Saturday.
The 27-year-old is now looking to a new future under new boss Yapp.
“Jo brings so much to the club,” Thompson said. “She brings experience and knowledge and she’s a Worcester girl through and through so she knows what she needs. I’m excited for this new era.
“We don’t want to be at the bottom of the table, it’s not what our ambitions are or what we are going for. So absolutely, we’re going to start targeting games, putting in big shifts.
“It’s a long-term vision especially in the women’s game. We have to be realistic about where we’re starting to where we want to be.
“But we hope that Worcester Warriors are going to be proud of having a very competitive women’s side in the future.”
With the women’s team being rebranded during the summer to fully come under the Warriors umbrella, Thompson is also excited by what this means for her side.
“I’m really enjoying it, the set-up at Warriors is awesome,” she added. “We are becoming one team with the men’s side and the academy side.
“We’ve got coaches coming over which is awesome, so I think we’re going to grow as a team and as players.
“We’ve got players coming back, people like Laura Keates who made her first start against Gloucester after a long time out with injuries. That’s huge.
“It’s just nice to play with a group of girls who are ambitious, who want to grow, and who want to start putting in big performances.”
Thompson has been capped 44 times by the Red Roses and hopes that younger girls will follow in her footsteps.
“It’s incredible, the support from the club to grow from where we have been. I was a complete amateur, I worked in the NHS when I first started, now I’m a full-time rugby player,” she said.
“To be in the position I am in now, I feel incredibly grateful but I hope that younger girls that are picking up a rugby ball can have the ambition to be a full-time rugby player, pull on a Warriors shirt and get paid to do something they love.”