Is Ignacio Mieres any Good(e)?

Ignacio Mieres

Player profile on the Worcester Warriors new fly half

"Nacho" as he's known to many rugby fans was a complete bolt out of the blue and one signing in particular that I never expected especially as he was contracted to the Chiefs for next season. I guess he was the signing that showed Goodey was surplus to requirements at Warriors.

I personally rate Ignacio highly, but he still has some improvements to make on his game management in my opinion. Even so I still think he's a very good modern day fly half with great attributes such as his speed and eye for a gap in the opposition defence.

The season before last,he was rated as one of the stand out performers in the league for the Exeter Chiefs, but last year he struggled to nail down a starting place due to Gareth Steenson's impressive form and some personal issues See Position Profile Fly Half

It's difficult to say how to rate this signing as Goodey was a "fans favourite" who had fantastic vision and a great kicking percentage that was always at the top of the charts in the Premiership.

All in all my personal view is that Nacho is the perfect age and will only get better as the years go on and not only that, I also think Paul Warwick will help improve his game with his guidance and input. 

With Meires I think he will add more to our attacking game with the "ball in hand" attacking game we're trying to adopt and is potentially a better passer of the ball than Goodey as many times last season I witnessed Goode incomplete a fair few passes on a regular basis.

One thing Warriors fans shouldn't forget  is that Nacho is a International player, but doesn't currently feature in the Los Pumas Argentinian squad, which will only make him more hungry to do well with our club so he can get himself into the minds of the selectors in time for the upcoming World Cup. 

With this in mind I can really see him playing out of his skin and in my view can only benefit our team and I think we have a very good fly half on our books indeed. 

AJ Bailey

Why do we need to say goodbye to Neil Best?

Dean Ryan has spoken of wanting to regain the 'rugby culture' at Warriors both on and off the pitch, well as characters go they do not get any more 'rugby culture' than Besty!  

With so many changes in the on the field and off the field personnel we need all the character we can get.  Without Neil Best in the setup we will be reliant on Craig Gillies (no bad thing) to bring he players back to a place of team work, Worcester passion and playing for each other with the sole aim of winning as a team.

When we were in the Championship I remember having a chat with Neil post game.  In those days (not really that long ago) the players would join fans for a beer in the Scrum Club after a game in a very relaxed and unstructured way.  Anyway, we were talking about my son who was 18 months old at the time and that being a proud Dad I was sure he would grow up to be a strapping back row and would love him to be just like Best, he replied "What? You want him to have skin like mine and a nose like this?  What kind of a Dad are you?" His response was so dead pan I almost didn't know what to do with myself.  Luckily he couldn't hold his laughter for too long and added "Seriously though, why do you want him to be like me?  I'm a dinosaur in rugby terms you want him to be more like the lad Kvesic"  The conversation went on but this sums up my thinking of Neil Best.  A massive character, ever the comedien but also a consumate rugby professional.  The man clearly held every club he played for close to his heart and played every minute of every game like it was his last.

From 2002 Best played for Ulster putting in over 100 appearances before switching to Saints in 2008. 

Neil joined us for the fight back into the Premiership in 2010 and was an outstanding performer.  Hopefully not too many of the London Scottish fans read his not so complementary comments about the RFU Championship and the oposition he faced!

Having played for Ireland 18 times Best built a reputation as a hard hitting no nonsense player.  For many at Worcester he was considered a yellow card waiting to happen.  Playing 61 times for Worcester Neil received 7 yellow cards and scored 25 points.  This might be a little harsh as Sam Betty has played 48 times in the same position and received 4 yellow cards, with plenty of time to match Best's 7 in 61 record.

The man literaly put his body on the line each and every game he played for us.  In November 2011, against Bath he broke his arm but continued to play for 20 minutes!

Prior to the 2012/13 season starting Neil suffered an injury that not only almost cost him his career it could have cost him his life!  

The injury described as Prepatellar Bursitis in his left knee became infected. Following 2 weeks in hospital, 3 operations and many visits from concerned family, friends and players he made a great recovery and got back into training and playing no more than a month later, making his first appearance of the season, against Gernika in October 2012.

So the man puts his body on the line in every game he has played for us, is now an experienced level 3 coach but we couldn't find room for him as a player coach?

London Scottish announced today (30/05/2013) the 'exciting' signing of Neil Best from Worcester Warriors.  

Exciting?  Excited! Best is the most excited and comedic player I have ever met.  I will long remember the image of him running aroound the Sixways training pitch with the, newly aquired and very serious bits of technology, GPS trackers, making the the shape of a cock and balls for all the coaches and physios to see on their monitors.

My assumption is that the signing of Jonathan Thomas sealed Neil leaving the club and though he is clearly a great signing I feel we will miss Best's changing room banter, on the pitch battling and his developing skills as a qualified coach.

I really hope Best's move to London Scottish goes well for him, that he gets game time and the chance to show he still has the talent and drive that has made him such a successful player over the years.  If, when his contract ends he is looking to get into coaching, I for one would welcome him back to Sixways with open arms.

Position Profile - Fly Half

Is it possible for there to be more change than we have had at 10 this season?  First it was announced that Joe Carlisle was leaving for Wasps.  Obviously expecting to get out from under the shadow of 1st choice fly-half Andy Goode, who a month or so later announced that he was also leaving at the end of the 2012/13 season and that his new pastures were also in Buckinghamshire!  Good(e) luck Joey!

Is it possible this was the double deal clincher?

So what is the role of a fly-half?

This is an extremely important position within the match day XV and arguably, regardless of who is named captain, the man that runs the match day tactics.  It is therefore extremely important that the #10 understands and implements the tactics derived by the coaching staff (something Richard Hill stated was not being done by Andy Goode).
Set piece movements are directed through and by the fly-half, passing, kicking, tackling and positional play are essential.  Open-side flankers like to eat 10's for breakfast and if you have a fly-half considered weak then they quickly become an attacking target for the opposition, with the "10 channel" becoming a favoured attacking direction.

What do you want in a fly-half?

In 2 words "Johnny Wilkinson" but more detailed - tactical awareness, passing ability, kicking ability from hand and place kicking, great vision, a certain level of physicality and strong leadership skills.

What have we had in the past?

Some would say it is a who's who of journeymen, former internationals and potential talent that never quite made it.

What do we have at #10 for 2013/14?

With 1st and 2nd choice 10's leaving, then head coach Richard Hill signed up the services of Ignacio Mieres and Paul Warwick.  Two less similar characters and players would be hard to find.

We have already looked at Paul Warwick in detail Paul Warwick #23 though I would not consider him a fly half.  As the title of my article on him suggests, I would see him as more of a specialist 23 than a first choice 10.

Lets not forget Danny Gray!

To be fair to Danny, he had time out last season and fell behind Joe for the supporting role as Warriors 10, but when he did come on the pitch he looked great!  His first proper start was away to Bath, when Andy Goode, having just announced he was leaving Sixways, fell ill as he warmed up for kick off.  Though the game ended in our tears, Danny played very well and in my opinion deserved more game time as the season drew to a close.

The major signing at 10 has been that of Ignacio Mieres, who will be reviewed in detail by AJ Bails in the coming days.  To be fair he is arriving at Sixways under a bit of a cloud.  An 'unknown' issue at his now former club Exeter has meant he missed the 2012/13 season, but hopefully he arrives having served his time and more importantly learning what you do not do in and around other team members!

The future of the 10 shirt

Something we have missed in recent years is competition at the academy level for fly half. We hear about the Ford brothers and Burns brothers and we are now starting to see the fruits of their age group battles at Tigers (Bath), Leeds (Sale) and Gloucester, but we have not really had that... until now. 

Last season our lack of young 10's was so apparent that on more than one occasion our Cavalier side fielded Dr. Who - it turns out he is a lad that lives near former head coach Richard Hill.

The 'real' Tom Baker

The lad did OK but it was quite embarrassing that a top flight rugby club had to resort to such a level to field a specialist fly half.

In Elliot Davies and Tiff Eden we have two very talented future 10's, both still teenagers and both on the books for the 2013/14 academy season.  I will be watching these guys closely to see how they progress!

Paul Warwick #23

Last night  (Friday 17th May 2013) Paul Warwick played in the final of the Amlin Challenge Cup.  A game lost by Stade Francaise 34-13.  I say lost because of the amount of wasted possession in the first half.  By the time Leinster had put 21 points on the board SF had 69% of the possession but not a single point to show for it.  To be fair Leinster were amazing and deserved the title, Warwick came on at half time and played the game at scrum half... this is our new #10 I'm talking about!  So, who have we signed?

Paul Warwick

Born:       1981

From:      Australia 

Height:    5' 11"

Weight:   90Kg

Position: Scrum half / Fly half / Full back

His playing career started with Manly in Australia, the same team that the now Sir Clive Woodward ended his playing playing career with back in 1990.  

He joined Connacht for the 2004/05 season.  Scoring 97 points in the challenge cup, which saw him secure a further 2 year deal and catch the eye of many top flight rugby clubs.

2007 Warwick joined Munster.  In the same season they signed All Black legend Doug Howlett.  He had 4 good seasons at the club making 95 appearances and scoring 461 points.  Warwick played his last game for Munster against Scarlets scoring 8 points in April 2011.  He was on the bench for 4 further games but didn't actually make it onto the pitch.

During his time at Munster Warwick was caught up in a bit of controversy when he signed with London Irish for the 2009/2010 season but, for personal reasons, he changed his mind.

February 2011 saw the official announcement that Paul had signed for Stade Francaise and would be playing the 2011/12 season in the Top 14. He has played 48 times for Stade in a mixture of positions including scrum half, fly half and full back.

The 2012/13 season sees Warwick join up with the Worcester Warriors, described as a 'winner' by Richard Hill part of the reason for him being signed was his attitude to playing rugby, but I would imagine the main reason is his versatility.  Mr. Hill used the term 'utility player' a lot of time when talking about building for the future and Warwick is certainly one of those.

Primarily signed as a  fly half to support the work of another Warriors new boy, Ignacio Mieres, Paul has a lot of experience playing at 15 for Munster and as he showed last night, in the Amlin Challenge Cup final, he is a very accomplished scrum half too.

Although he does not have any full international caps, the Australian has played for the Barbarians and 7's rugby for his country.

International or Premiership rugby experience he is not bringing to the club, but he does have bags of European experience and has been brought in to spread his 'winning' mentality. 

If his performance in the final is anything to go by we have signed a quality player. Considering I have not seen any profile description state him as a scrum half he was more than capable in that position.  Very early to the break down, extremely physical in retrieving the ball and in the tackle.  You could see him controlling the forwards and at times he would also take on the role of fly half and be controlling the backs.

Warwick was interviewed by the Irish Times prior to the Amlin final and said of his time with Stade “Yeah it’s been . . . eh . . . interesting,” but he did confirm that he is really looking forward to his move to England, so hopefully we will avoid a repeat of the London Irish episode of 2009.

It has been reported by the club that Warwick will be the back-up 10 for Mieres but also that he will be the player mentor for new academy recruit Tiff Eden.  

Tiff made his Warriors debut in the Greene King 7's in Bury St. Edmonds.  A 7's specialist (or as specialist as you can be at anything when you are 18 years young) and fly half he received very good reports from players and coaches alike.

A big welcome to the club Paul, of the signings Dean Ryan has inherited surely this is one that he will be happy with, I'm really looking forward to seeing Warwick playing in the blue and gold of Worcester Warriors.

 

The Big Farewell

What a season! It has been such a roller coaster 8 or 9 months. We had a great preseason in terms of results but picked up 12 first team injuries. We had a massive home win against Irish but our A League team, weak due to injury, lost all their games. We scored freely in the Amlin cup games but did not qualify for the knock stages even though we topped our group. Our last win of any description was 1st March and then... All change!

Over recent seasons, what with relegation and promotion, we have seen large changes in personnel but this season, it is seemingly massive!

At the start of the season we had 26 players needing new contracts (actually 24 but then we add Murray and Walker's contract was cancelled) and once January came along it was clear that more than half the team had their minds on other things. Yes some were playing for a deal, but it was also evident that friction was building between the club and the players. 

We managed to negotiate and retain 12 of the 26

Porter
Shervington
Hayes
Murray (Marquee)
Percival
Gillies
Betty
De Carpentier
Arr
Drauniniu
Howard
Pennell

Which with the use of some complex maths leads me to think 14 are leaving

Mullan
Lutui
Big Dave
Currie
Best
Kvesic
Cowan
Perry
Frost
Goode
Carlisle
Walker
Short
Claassens

If you even up the teams a bit and lend the leavers some locks I can't help but feel that the leaving team would win! Don't get me wrong, we have retained some key guys; Shervington, Murray, Percival, Pennell etc and we have extended the deals for some exceptional young talent with the likes of Porter, Hayes and Howard. Just look at the players and positions we have lost; Matt Mullan loose head international prop, Aleki Lutui international captain, Big Dave one of the best tight heads in the sport, James Currie an exciting and dynamic young tight head, Matt Kvesic now called up for full England honours. The list goes on. It seems such a shame to have worked and developed these lads and now to lose them.

Mullan, Currie, Kvesic, Frost, Carlisle and Short are all English Qualifying and have all come through our academy system. They are leaving for the likes of Wasps, Leeds and Bristol leaving a very large gap in our development cycle and even bigger one in the front row.

Not only have we lost 14 playing staff we have lost our coaching staff too

Richard Hill
Nigel Redman
Phil Vickery
Phil Larder
Mathieu Rourre

All gone.  Former England players, world cup winning player, world cup winning coach, head coach, forwards coach, front row coach, defensive and attacking coaches.  The whole set-up is changing.  To be honest the likes of Vickery and Rourre do not seem to have made much of an impact as part time specialist coaches, especially as Rourre cancelled his dual role in December to take over at his French job share club Biarritz.  

Dean Ryan and Shane Howarth have been brought in with other, full time, coaches to be announced soon.

The man at the top, Charlie Little has been replaced due to being, in Cecil Duckworth's words, too young “When I brought Charlie into the club, my plan was always to train him up to be managing director, but the general feeling on the board is that he is still a young man and not mature enough to take us forward, so we thought a change would be better now." Worcester News 

The disruption due to change has been vocal throughout the support base, let alone the squad itself.  Since January we have been drip fed announcements of new deals, new signings and players leaving.  In the most part the official news coming some time after the likes of BBC Sport or local papers making the *BREAKING NEWS* statements.  This was compounded at the last home game of the season.  The traditional point at which the fans get to say thank you and farewell to the outgoing players.  

At the home game against Quins in April we were still awaiting official news on the futures of; Lutui, Dave, Best, Perry, Currie and Frost.  After the game fans flooded the pitch to thank and have pictures with the likes of Goode, Mullan and Kvesic but long standing stars Lutui and Best had not officially been announced as leaving and therefore did not give the fans chance to say thank you.

It was not until the end of season party that Cecil finally confirmed that Best, Currie and Frost are leaving and as of writing this, it has still not been published on the official website.

To offset some of the lost players we have made 8 new signings

Leonardo Senatore
Paul Warwick Augustin Creevy
Ignacio Mieres
Paul Andrew
Ofa Fainga'anuku
Mike Williams
James Stephenson

These signings will add some quality and flair to the side, though the jury is still out on how having 3 Argentinian internationals will affect the squad.

What does all this change mean?  For a start there is no looking back.  Having finished 11th in the premiership there are many lessons to learn but with all of the coaching staff changing and a massive part of the playing staff leaving do we have the systems and personnel in place to learn from our mistakes?  With the culture and team spirt absent from the team can we rebuild and start to play for each other again?  With an entire front row of Mullan, Lutui and Dave leaving how will our front 5 function?  A complete change at fly-half, bringing in a 10 that has hardly played in the 2012/13 season and a full back, will this be an improvement or will they both need time to get up to premiership speed?  Youth and pace seemed to be the target with the new signings but we have also lost a lot of premiership experience. Of the 8 signings only Mieres has played in the premiership and he has only made 26 starts.

Change is good, change improves processes, increases effectiveness and ensures objectives are achieved but change is also disruptive, time sensitive and can go drastically wrong.  When trying to get to the root cause of an issue it is key that you do not make too many changes at once as you may never understand the true failing and worst case can create new problems to compound the original issue.

Has there been too much change?  Will Dean Ryan need his much talked about magic wand? We will find out this time next season!

I have a joke for you about the Warriors

"What's the difference between Worcester Warriors and London Welsh?"

"A draw, 3 bonus points and a forged visa"

In the end that is it. I guess it isn't that funny, but it is a joke. Yesterday we were meant to be breaking our away day nil, instead Welsh scored their first TBP of the season. How did that happen?

Round 5 we beat London Irish 35-11 and from round 6 until round 20 we held 9th place.  With the last kicks of the season Sale beat Wasps climbed above us and our 33-22 defeat ensured we finished 11th. Having looked over our shoulder all season at Irish, Welsh and Sharks suddenly it is only the relegated exiles below us. 

There is always a silver lining and this season it has been Josh D. Playing against his former club yesterday he scored a rapid fire brace that at least made the score line semi respectable.  

This season we thought was going to be the start of something special. The squad was coming together. Losses were turning into LBP losses, draws to wins and we were picking up some TBP too, but 1 win in 2013 and no away win all season were telling:

This season we:

Scored 33 points 3 LESS than last and only 5 better than when we were relegated

Picked up 8 LBP 2 MORE than last and the same as when we were relegated

Won 3 TBP we have only EVER scored 2 before in the premiership

Scored 422 points 100 MORE than last and 110 more than when we were relegated

We won 5 matches 2 LESS than last and 2 more than when we were relegated

Of the 422 points we scored 219 were from the boot of Andy Goode. 

If the RFU were to turn around today and say, Worcester Warriors we are sorry for the points our refs prevented you getting, with their poor decisions. He you go, have your 9 points, we would still only finish 9th. We were that far behind the elusive Heineken Cup rugby positions in the end we would almost need to double our points to qualify. 

The season has ended now and there is nothing more we can do other than look forward to the Lions tour which will result in no Warrior injuries, Dean Ryan taking charge of preseason, the myriad of announcements that noneed to be made regarding new talent on and off the pitch and the new kit, which hopefully this season will arrive before Gus Creevy!

As a club we only ever seem to give 3 years; Brain, Ruddock, Hill. The worst year always seems to be the 3rd. This time we need to enter into the Ryan era with a 5 year plan. Next season is stave off relegation mode, then build into the middle 4 then maybe 2 years to qualify for the Heineken Cup and the 5th year to see what success feels like. Then and only then can anybody really say we gave our DoR the support he needed. Maybe if such a plan was put in place and made public the fans would buy into it. 

One thing is for certain, if the club say we have started a journey, a 3 year journey, a journey to HC rugby - I for one will not buy it and will be holding back my excitement until 2016 when the next DoR comes in. 

My joke at the start wasn't factually correct, what is the difference between Worcester Warriors and London Welsh? We own our own ground, training facilities, indoor training facilities, we have a fan base on the door step, a land complex to develop further, experienced board members, very wealthy financial backers, international talent, a former lion - we have everything they would love to have and yet the only things that actually separate us are a draw, 3 bonus points and a forged visa!

Which Warriors could have been Lions?

Having seen the underwhelming response to the Lions squad I decided to look at the Warrior Lions.

Euan Murray

The obvious first choice potential Lion.  At 32 Euan is considered to be at his peak, though some may argue he is past his best, his Worcester performances this season certainly would not suggest this.
Murray made his Scotland debut back in 2005 and has since gone on to play 53 games for his country.
His 10 premiership and 3 cup appearances for Worcester predominately as the starting tight head.

Murray has missed out to Matt Stevens.  Stevens is younger and heavier than Murray but he is also less experienced, shorter and has a history of drug taking.  Stevens is considered to be able to play loose and tight head and therefore seen as more of a squad player than Murray.

You could argue that if Mullan & Murray had been picked, if only for non test games, you would have a front row pairing that know how to scrum together.

Matt Mullan

Though he only has 1 full international cap the soon to be former Warrior loose head has had another great season.  Matt has fallen foul of injury many times over his career but having put in 20 appearances this season and only suffering a training day "freak accident" injury, hopefully that is all behind him.  As a Worcester prop he has been amazing and I am sure he will do the same for Wasps from next season.

Unfortunately for Matt there are many players in front of him for England duty, let alone Lions duty.  All you have to say is Cian Healy and you can see why Mullan would not be selected.  Their stats are pretty close; only a year in age, an inch in height and they weigh in the same, but the big difference is Mullan has 1 England cap vs Healy with 39 Ireland caps.

Maybe a couple of injury free rugby at Wasps will give Mullan his chance to play for England.  He will still be less than 30 years old for the next Lions tour!

Ed Shervington

Is Dylan Hartley really playing better than Ed?

The facts are that Hartley is younger, taller, heavier and vastly more experienced than Ed but does that matter?  I guess it does.  Ed does not seem to have had a sniff at international rugby and with 35 premiership caps vs Hartley's 90 it would appear he is some way behind.

It is very rare that Mr. Hill would let Ed or Aleki play a full 80 minutes of rugby. 2011/12 season Ed only played a full 80 minutes once and this season it has only happened twice.  Though our former head coach must value Ed to have given him a new contract and planned to start next season with just him and Ollie Hayes as first team choices until November.

Unfortunately for Ed I think international rugby has passed him by but fortunately for us Worcester Warriors are where he remains.

James Percival

I hardly need to write a justification for this selection.  The man has been fantastic for Worcester again this season.  He has already picked up the only prize that maters - Fans Player of Season 2012/13 but should he have also picked up some tickets to join the lions tour?

Comparing the giant lock to Geoff Parling - Percy is 6'5"weighs 257ib is 29 and 81 premiership caps but no international test caps.  Parling is 6'6" weighs 251lb is 29 and has 131 premiership caps with 17 international caps.  As a Warrior though they cannot be compared.  In every sense Percy wears his heart on his sleeve and plays every game as if it is his last.  He has played 25 games for us this season and up until the Sarries game he had played every single minute of premiership rugby this season! 

I'm not sure how serious it was, but there was even talk of him qualifying for Wales.  Judging by the Lions squad this may well have been a tactic to aid his progress into the touring side?!

For me the Warriors captain is head and shoulders above any other player in the premiership and should been on the plane to Australia.

Andy Goode

If only he had maintained his fitness.  There could be so many arguments for taking him.  Though there are many that say he is a great 10 at club level but never made the step up to international rugby.

In all honesty though, to get in the team he would have to do better than another legendary 10 that missed the cut - Johnny Wilkinson.  The numbers just do not add up.

England

Andy Goode - 17 Caps 107 points

Johnny Wilkinson - 91 Caps 1179 points

As a club player Goode has been outstanding though

Premiership

Andy Goode - 188 Caps 1834 points

Johnny Wilkinson - 138 Caps 1489 points

Goode is the second highest all time scorer in the premiership and currently holds the accolade of highest points scorer ever for both Tigers and Warriors.

As I said above, if only he kept his fitness going this season.  It may be coincidence but ever since it was announced that he was signing for Wasps he seems to have got slower, less interested and less committed.  Understandable maybe, but tarnishes the end of his Warriors career and any chance of becoming the 3rd 10 on the tour to Australia.

Chris Pennell

I covered Chris' career in some detail back in January 2013 and since then he seems to have only got better!

There are no premiership based full backs in the touring squad.  Halfpenny, Hogg and Kearney take the places.  Brown didn't make it as a "utility back".  So far England seemed to have looked past Pennell for home nation caps, so why should he play for the Lions?  This season Chris has made it to the landmark of 100 points in 100 games for Worcester having played 23 of those games this season.  His performance at the last home game of the season summed up his season.  Great running with ball in hand, great defence, performed well under high ball and added some real attacking flair.  Maybe a few more performances like that would get the international selectors looking more closely at him.  Maybe, Worcester playing a more consistent and attacking game will help also!

In his way for the Lions is Halfpenny, player of the championship in this years Six Nations and a target for every premiership and French team playing in the Heineken Cup, so to be fair Chris would struggle to keep him out of the Lions tour,  but as no other premiership player or England player made the tour, maybe there is nothing stopping him being called up for England or at least the Saxons next season.

Reality

Do I really think that any of the Worcester players should have been named in the Lions touring squad - maybe not.  Do I think any of them could have been called up - no chance.  Until we work our way out of the bottom 4 premiership sides and give our players chance to shine they have no real chance of selection.  Not through poor performance or not being good enough, purely through not being in the spot light for the right reasons.  It is hard enough to get into their home nations team let alone the Lions team! 

The Actual Lions

Full-backs: L Halfpenny, S Hogg, R Kearney
Wings: G North, A Cuthbert, T Bowe, S Maitland
Centres: B O'Driscoll, M Tuilagi, J Roberts, J Davies
Fly-halves: J Sexton, O Farrell
Scrum-halves: C Murray, M Phillips, B Youngs
Props: G Jenkins, C Healy, M Vunipola, A Jones, D Cole, M Stevens
Hookers: D Hartley, R Hibbard, T Youngs
Locks: I Evans, R Gray, AW Jones, P O'Connell, G Parling
Back row: T Croft, T Faletau, J Heaslip, D Lydiate, S O'Brien, J Tipuric, S Warburton (capt).

Position Profile - Hooker

After the recent article by @AJBails I thought it was a good time to start taking a look at the key positions within the Warriors squad, starting with Hooker. 

When you Google "Hooker" it returns:

Which doesn't really go anyway to help this blog, so I decided to put in a more detailed search "Hooker Rugby".  This didn't really help either so I decided to read a book.

A Hooker - The player who lines up between the props, coordinates the engagement of the pack and is in theory responsible for winning the ball at the scrum by "Hooking" Though in reality this happens very little in the modern game, the position is still seen as a key decision maker, not only do they control the 100's of kilo's behind them in a scum they are responsible for the restart - Line Out.  I didn't bother Googling this term as I figured lots of finishing websites would result, which would play havoc with my internet viewing at a later date seeing fishing adverts all over the cookie filled internet sites I tend to frequent.  Suffice to say the line out is key, as whenever the ball is kicked or carried off the pitch it is the chosen method of restart.

So, our hooker is a key part of the team at set piece and in loose play.  Over the years we have had some good hookers to chose from but for this article I will concentrate on the current and future wearers of the #2 shirt: Ed Shervington and Ollie Hayes.  If you would like to read about Warriors new boy Gus Creevy please take a look HERE 

Aleki Lutui is one of the highest capped Worcester Warriors players in the history of the club.  Born in Tofoa the 34 year old has played 186 games W/D/L 88/10/88.  He has not signed a new Warriors contract for 2013/14 having signed a 2 year deal with Edinburgh. 

That leaves the club with Ed Shervington and Ollie Hayes, both having signed contract extension in 2013.  It is expected that Gus Creevy will arrive at the club around the end of November following his International commitments.  So we have an easy choice at #2 and #16 

Ollie Hayes

Born in Bath in 1990 now standing at 1,83m and weighing in at 105Kg Ollie was signed by Richard Hill from his former club Bristol and has been the "hot prospect" for the last couple of seasons.

Picture: Ollie putting in a tackle on Aleki in his days as a Bristol player.

During the Warriors Championship season Ollie was a regular starter for Bristol and played against us a couple of times.  The later coming in the 81 - 13 Sixways thrashing of Bristol. Ollie's first official run out for Worcester was for the Cavaliers against Exeter United.  As a debut it went very well only making 2 mistakes at the line out in what was a match full of hand bags.  This game sticks in my mind as it was the game that former Warriors 7 Tom Leech had a "coming together" with now Warrior Prop John Andress. 

I think it is fair to say Ollie enjoyed his debut more than Andress did, a broken nose and a defeat for his Exeter United side to his soon to be employers.

Ollie has since gone on to make 14 appearances for Worcester scoring 2 tries and being involved in 7 team victories.  As 3rd choice hooker he is reliant on injuries and players being rested, which after November 2012 hasn't really happened at the club and therefore has played very little rugby in the run up to the end of the season.  

A self proclaimed "Cube Head" Ollie has settled in well at the club and become an integral member of the senior set-up.  His desire to play first team rugby and progress as the owner of the #2 shirt has seen him spend many hours on the training field and in the gym "bulking not sulking" which he will hope results in a regular first team place for 2013/2014.

Ed Shervington

Welsh born 1,80m 110Kg Ed Shervington is 28 years old and has played 65 games for Worcester.

Ed previously played for Neath and Gloucester.  Having played for Welsh age groups at U18, U19 and U21 levels Ed made his move from Ospreys following the 2009/2010 season ready for our drive to get promotion from the Championship.

A very strong and versatile player, I remember once seeing Ed play at #2 for the first half of a game to then spend the second half as a flanker.  Not only did he hold his own in this position he went on to score a brilliant try demonstrating is ability in open play.  A very steady thrower and an exceptionally strong athlete Ed is an extremely reliable and capable premiership hooker always adding power at the breakdown.

Any frequent visitors to the David Lloyd complex at Sixways will know this already, but Ed is an exceptional athlete, putting in a massive number of gym hours both improving his already impressive strength and helping his fellow team mates and back room staff.

One peculiarity of the Hooker stats at Worcester is that the win loss ration for all 3 current players is 50/50.

So what can we expect for next season?  We have 3 very capable rugby playing hookers available, though at the moment it would appear only 2 will be in contention for the first couple of months of the Premiership season.  There would appear to be not much difference between Ed and Ollie in terms of pace, strength and throwing but it is clear that Ed has much more experience of top flight rugby and has been preferred ahead of Ollie in the race for the shirt so regularly held by Aleki Lutui.

This season our line out has been criticised many times and be it through coaching, poor throwing or the limited use of our line out legend Craig Gillies, this is an area of our game that must improve under Dean Ryan next season.

Can we compare our hooker options to those of previous world rugby greats such as; Mario Ledesma, Sean Fitzpatrick or John Smit? Their lack of international honours would say not, though Augustin Creevy, deemed our first choice hooker for next season does have 22 caps for his native Argentina.  

Next season our realistic aim should be to achieve a slot in the middle 4 of the premiership in which case we will be battling with the likes of Exeter, Bath and Gloucester.  Do our options compare to theirs?  Exeter have 5 EQ hookers, including Jack Yeandle & Chris Whitehead.  Bath are equally endowed with EQ players utilising Rob Webber and Ross Batty.  Gloucester on the other hand call on Australian Huia Edmonds and EQ Darren Dawidiuk.  Looking at our nearest premiership rivals I would say that Gus, Ed and Ollie can more than hold their own and I may even be so bold as to say we have greater strength and depth in this key position than the teams we want to be out performing in the league.

Looking further up the table and this seasons title contenders are complimented by names such as Brits, Smit, Chuter, Youngs and Hartley.  Can we compete with these guys? Possibly not next season but who knows fo rthe season after that.  Although age can certainly bring experience and rugby knowledge we already bring pace, strength and offloads.

Though the words conjured up by a Google search for "Hooker" return as 'strumpet', 'street walker' or 'trollop'  Worcester Warriors have 3 options at hooker for next season that whip-up images of talent, youthful experience, physicality, scrum power, pace and skill, which will exceed the teams around us and start to compete with those above.