Warriors Squad Announced for Pre-Season Opener Away At Ampthill

Worcester Warriors Head Coach Matt Everard has named an extended 34-player squad for Worcester’s return to action away at Ampthill in Saturday’s pre-season opener.

Speaking ahead of the fixture, Everard said:

"It's very exciting to name the first Warriors team in a long time – it’s challenging, which is good and I think it always will be. Pretty much everyone who’s fit to play is playing in this game. Everyone has worked very, very hard across pre-season, physically, working hard to connect and bond and get cohesive with each other.”

The side features a XV for the first-half, with a new side set to take to the pitch in the second period.

Billy Keast, Will Biggs and one of Thursday’s new signings Ashley Challenger start in the front-row, with another new signing Tom Golder partnering James Tyas in the second-row. Tim Anstee, Thabo Ndimande and Khalik Kareem round-off the forwards for the first-half.

Will Lane and Will Reed start at 9 and 10 respectively with Taite Fortey and James Short lining up in the centres. Alfie Garside, Roma Zheng and Will Trewin complete the starting line-up.

Fly-half Will Reed will captain the side in the first-half with fellow 10 Tiff Eden leading in the second, with Everard explaining how much the duo have impressed him during pre-season.

“I think naturally you want your fly-halves to grab the team, run with it and drive it themselves which they’ve both absolutely done. They’ve been brilliant on and off the field, driving the group in the right direction that they want to take them.”

Reed, who joined Worcester from the Dragons, spoke of his pride of captaining the club:

“It’s a massive honour, you look at the players that have captained this club before – there’s some great names there. When we step on that pitch nothing much really changes for me – I’m just going to try and focus on my game and lead the team as well as I can.”

Worcester Warriors team vs Ampthill (A – Pre-Season) – Saturday 3PM, Dillingham Park 

15 Will Trewin, 14 Roma Zheng, 13 James Short, 12 Taite Fortey, 11 Alfie Garside, 10 Will Reed ©, 9 Will Lane; 1 Billy Keast, 2 Will Biggs, 3 Ashley Challenger, 4 Tom Golder, 5 James Tyas, 6 Tim Anstee, 7 Thabo Ndimande, 8 Khalik Kareem.

Archie Vanes, Finn Haynes, Tim Hoyt, Owain Evans, Matt Kvesic, Lloyd Williams, Tiff Eden ©, Josh Bassett, Hallam Chapman, George Young, Jake Garside, Billy Twelvetrees, Tom Seabrook, Siva Naulago, Louis Brown, Austin Wallis, Livai Natave, Ollie Dawkins, Chris Preen