Alan Solomons will be proud to leave behind a club with a Worcester identity and a core of homegrown players when he steps down as Warriors’ Director of Rugby at the end of the season.
Solomons will retire from coaching after a career that began when he took charge of the University of Cape Town’s Third XV in 1977 after injury cut short his playing career.
By the time rugby went professional in 1995, Solomons had taken charge of the University’s first XV and he then took a sabbatical from his day job as a partner in one of Cape Town’s top law firms to turn what had been his hobby into a profession.
Solomons became an Assistant Coach to South Africa’s Head Coach Nick Mallett and then set off on a remarkable rugby journey that took him all over the world including stints with Ulster, a High Performance role with the International Rugby Board – now World Rugby – back to South Africa with Southern Kings, Edinburgh and, finally, to Worcester.
Solomons arrived at Sixways as a consultant midway through the 2017/18 season when relegation from the Premiership appeared certain.
Warriors stayed up that season and have remained a top flight club ever since and have done so with a squad that increasingly has local players, produced by the Three Pears Warriors Academy, at its core.
“When I first came to Worcester it was the first club I had been at where local players weren’t the central core of the club. I wanted to give the club a Worcester identity,” Solomons said.
“Worcester had produced good players but for some reason they didn’t seem to stay on. I wanted us to become a sustainable top six club through the medium of a vibrant, flourishing academy.
“You talk about long term vision and sustainability. Look through our squad now. You have Kai Owen and Lewis Holsey at loosehead, Beck Cutting and Finn Theobald-Thomas at hooker, Justin Clegg and Andrew Kitchener have come through at lock, you’ve got Ted Hill and Jack Forsythe, who has played tremendously this season, as loose forwards then, in the backs, you have Fin Smith, Ollie Lawrence, Seb Atkinson, Oli Morris, Noah Heward, Jamie Shillcock and Alex Hearle. They are homegrown players.
“This club is now a Worcester club. We are Worcester.
“I came back on the bus from the Premiership Rugby Cup final and all the young lads were on that bus. This is their club.
“It doesn’t mean that you don’t want people from outside. Of course you do because that diversity enriches the mix.
“But we now have the identity with a core group of players who are Worcester through and through.”
When his contract expires at the end of this month, Solomons will head back to Northern Ireland where he and his wife, Mary, have made their home.
His career as a rugby coach may be over but, for a man who has thrived on being involved in rugby for more than half-a-century, it is unlikely that this is the last we have heard of Alan Solomons.
“I am retiring from coaching. Handing over the rugby programme here 18 months ago was an intermediate step towards that. I have coached for 40-odd years which is a fair stint,” Solomons said.
“But I will definitely look to see what I can do when I get back to Northern Ireland but I would rather do that when I get back there in July and finish the job here properly.
“This has been quite a challenging job but I am very happy with where we are. What is most important is our young Worcester players and I can move on knowing we have a clear Worcester identity and a core of homegrown players who have played in the local clubs and schools and the people in Worcester know them.”