Director of Rugby Steve Diamond spoke to the media ahead of Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership match against London Irish.
Here’s what Steve had to say:
How difficult have the last few weeks been?
- There has been some uncertainty but behind the scenes we have cracked on. We’ve picked a side and we will travel on Saturday.
- It’s not been as difficult as you might think. There has been a lot of noise outside, and rightly so because of the predicament the club is in.
- In reality we have managed to cocoon ourselves in the training facility which is all on site and we have got on with the job in hand.
- One of the biggest worries was getting paid. That happened last Friday which was a godsend and staff have been paid a percentage and that seems to have allayed the fears.
Do you expect the club to complete the season?
- I am planning for the next four or five weeks, that scheduling is in place. Then we have a week’s break and we are kicking on as if nothing will stand in our way in that process.
- Everything for the weekend is in place and then we have a home game against Exeter Chiefs.
- There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to make sure that can be fulfilled. There are a lot of costs and expenditure to get the stadium ready for game day but, given everything that has gone on, we would be expecting a bumper crowd.
- We then have Newcastle at home the following week so two home games early in the season is great for the payroll and for creditors.
- It’s also a chance for people to show what they feel about Worcester Warriors.
- The owners have had some bad press but we are not talking about Colin and Jason all the time, we are talking about Worcester Warriors.
- In these jobs, and I have had four of them in the Premiership, you are custodians of the shirt, the players are, the coaches are and, to an extent, the owners are.
- We have to do what’s right for Worcester Warriors and hopefully the support that has been shown to me and the squad we will see in abundance a week on Sunday.
Is there any update on whether the club is going to go into administration?
- The decision on whether the club goes into administration is not for the rugby side, it’s for the business side of the club.
- There are fors and against. If you go into administration you do lose a lot of your creditors but you also lose a lot of goodwill with your suppliers who have supplied the club for many years.
- The owners are looking at that and trying to get the best outcome for the club moving forward. Whichever choice they make will hopefully be the right one.
- If you go into administration you potentially get relegated. We can handle that but you lose your P Share. That is your central funding so you’d end up being down for a year, hopefully coming back but being £4 million behind every other club.
- Administration is an avenue but whether it is the correct avenue, I’ll reserve judgement on.
- The owners have informed me today that they have an investor who has a very strong interest. They are in talks now but I don’t know who it is.
- Although I have a lot of experience in these jobs – CEO and Director of Rugby – I have decided the most important thing that needs to happen here is to get the rugby right.
- People with better credentials than I have have failed to get the club out of tenth or eleventh place.
- So my job if we are allowed and if we are financed is to do that and that is what I am concentrating on. Keeping the group motivated, the coaching staff motivated, the kit man and the chefs.
On London Irish
- It’s a different side we are sending there on Saturday but one of the benefits of us not playing a game in pre-season is that they have not seen what we have been doing.
- They are a well-drilled side, they some great players and they are well coached. We have spent ten or 15 per cent of our time looking at them, but this is one of those occasions when we have to care about what we are doing.
- I’m looking forward to a great game. To get a team out is pretty good, to put in a performance will be even better. If sneak a bonus point, then who knows?
- If we win then we might just stop at the first off licence on the way home.
Have you had difficulty in motivating the players?
- No, because their motivation is not cash. The motivation is personal and for the team and they all want to play for Worcester.
- I am anticipating that we will go there and show what we are about. All of them to a man have stuck by what we said we were going to do before these problems came about.
- They are also in the shop window. There are other clubs looking at the current playing staff, as I would if I was in their shoes, so if there is a plethora of players who are going to become unemployed if things don’t go right here then you want to be in the best position fitness wise and performance wise to get another job.
- What has happened here has brought a lot of the playing, coaching and ancillary staff into the real world now . Post-Covid there isn’t light at the end of the tunnel, it’s still dark and dismal to a certain extent.
- When you come here to play sport you have got to be happy and try to forget about those things and we have managed to do that.
- My job is to keep their pecker up and that is what I’m good at.
- Our training week has been outstanding. I can’t get them to train any better than I have the last three days.
Injuries
- Fin Smith has a broken jaw and he should be back in early October.
- Kyle Hatherell is not available. If an offer comes in for a player we will always look at them. That has happened with Kyle, at the moment nothing has been agreed. If the right offer comes in and I think it’s right and the owners think it’s right then we will do a negotiation on that.