Coach Powell calls for French repeat

Worcester coach Matt Powell called on Warriors to reproduce the same attacking form that saw them put Olympus Rugby XV Madrid to the sword when they travel to France next week.

Warriors scored eight tries against the Spanish side with Matt Cox (3), Jake Abbott (2), Sam Tuitupou, Chris Pennell and Greg King all grabbing tries in a comprehensive 54-3 victory.

The Sixways side completes its involvement in the Amlin Challenge Cup with a game in Montpellier on Friday (kick-off 8pm local time).

And Skills Coach and Attack Analyst Powell is keen to see Warriors – and the young guns – again fire to push their claims for the second half of the season.

“The Madrid game was a chance for a lot of guys to put their hand up and we will probably put a similar sort of side out against Montpellier,” said Powell.

“There were players out there who stood up well, but really, with all respect to Madrid, I would expect every one of our squad members to dominate in a game like this.

“Quite a few guys did, but it’s about seeing if they can back in up away in Montpellier which we know will be tough.

“Matt Cox had a great game and scored a few tries, but the challenge for him is whether he can product that kind of performance in France.

“After today’s performance certain players are closer to the first team,” he added. “During this season, Pat Sanderson, Kai Horstmann and Tom Wood have all cemented their place in the back row.

“What we need now is guys pushing them and with performances like today by the entire back row they will start putting pressure on the coaches and give us a headache every Monday morning.

“With Chris Pennell coming back from injury and Marcel Garvey playing well against Madrid, for us at the moment, and it has been like that over the last few weeks, it is difficult selecting the back line.

“But we want that competition for places everywhere in the team and then we will really start to move forward.”

Powell also revealed how keen Warriors were to push the Amlin Challenge Cup to set them up for a big campaign in the LV= Cup with games against Gloucester and London Irish on the horizon.

“We said before Christmas that we want to push hard in the LV= Cup competition – it is a good route into Europe,” he said.

“The Gloucester game is big for us, we want to go down to Kingsholm and win and then we know we can turn over London Irish here, we were gutted that the game was called off last week.

“It’s now a matter of pride in Europe and to give players the chance to perform. But we are keen to stay in the hunt in the LV= Cup and these European games can give us confidence.

“The league has been barren in terms of tries, not many teams have been playing that much expansive rugby,” he added.

“We haven’t scored that many tries this season so to score eight against Madrid and put some great counter attack tries together is brilliant for the club and the supporters who have seen a bit too much kicking in the first half of the season from all the clubs.”


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