Bath vs Warriors - A tale of Two Halves

So close yet so far.

I guess another way of saying it, what do we have to do in order to get our first win of the season?

Personally I had a weekend away celebrating my eldest son's 15th birthday climbing walls and running assault courses in mud and water, so I did not get to live the game blow by blow, but did follow tweets and very delayed notifications from the BBC.

I for one was in the hope, based on the half time lead that we would finally win at the Rec and would claim our first win of the season.  Sadly injuries seem to have bitten us once again.

What was of more influence following the half time restart - 3 substitutions due to injuries or some interesting refereeing decision?

The story of our season to date seems to be that of challenging the best with the youngest of our players.

It is common knowledge that we are missing some of our key players, Pennell, Heem, Hougaard, GJ and many others.  That kind of quality and experience missing from any team, outside of the top 4, would be crippling; but our young replacements are shining through.

Perry Humphries obviously caught the eye last weekend against Gloucester.  Replacing T'eo and playing the game of his life.  Who would have thought that would have been followed by Shillcock making his premiership starting debut and looking every bit the experienced professional.  

In times gone by Pennell getting injured was fairly frequent, Ben Howard would step in, play pretty well but then Chris would come back and all was in safe hands again.  This time, we have got used to Chris not getting injured anymore so him being out for months is painful. 

Usually this is where Ben would step up and save the day, but he is injured too.  In came Willison, who sadly is not a full back.  This is when Perry was brought in and was outstanding.

Really did take his opportunity.

Jamie Shillcock, you may remember had to take his history A-Level before being put on the bench for the final against Bristol, making him our 4th choice scrum half.  He has since played age group and representative rugby at 10 and now seems to have slotted into the 15 position very well.

He has certainly grown into his shirt since the Championship final, shows some of the 9 tenacity, can kick like a 10 but also seems to cope well under high balls and can certainly run.  The funny thing is that Perry playing so well at full back  last week and getting a start on the wing has given Shillcock this opportunity to shine and shine he has done.

As a team we are second from bottom.  We managed a great first 40 against Sarries which ended in a big defeat.  We put in a great first half against Gloucester, which ended in a draw and we had an amazing first 40 against a team we beat rarely at a ground we are yet to win at - sadly we lost without even a bonus point. 

The irony is, most fans seem happy with the season so far.

Before the season started there were massive influxes of doom and gloom.  After losing to the best side in our hemisphere you would think we had been relegated already, but since then positive thoughts have returned to the Sixways faithful and I for one love it!

Newcastle are going to be a pain for us this season, Quins seem to have dropped into our dog fight and Bristol are taking a beating - they are not the next London Welsh but they are keeping the gap between us and relegation wider than some had feared.

All is looking good so far this season and Hogg should be pleased with the performances but lets not kid ourselves - a win is massively needed. 4 points this weekend and we start looking up again.  Another defeat and we will continue to look over our shoulder at the Bristol results for months to come.

Come on You Warriors 

The Magic Number 23

Warriors vs Gloucester Did Not Disappoint 

Friday night [overly bright] lights and we witnessed a pretty spectacular game – for all the right reasons but sadly for a few of the wrong ones.

This is why I love rugby.  A massive shout out to my colleague, fellow Evertonian and all round top bloke Andy Price.  The man is a die hard Gloucester fan, wears Cherry & White glasses and loves Kingsholm but in the spirit of our sport he was painted up for the night.

Well done Andy!

Lets just get it out there – I didn’t at the time, I didn’t when I was having to watch the replay on my phone because the big screen broke and having seen it again – I still do not think that was a red card.

My only other comment on this is:

Same game different outcome! [The elbow hitting Lamb's head]

The screen and Elenex light display were way too bright and then broke.  The queues for beer were terrible.  I gave up twice and missed the first 15 minutes of the game trying to get a beer in the East stand.  The 2^nd time I gave up was because I actually witnessed the only three bar staff, with a queue of say 50 people ALL trying to pick up a pasty from the oven, at the same time – meaning not one person was pouring drinks for a good couple of minutes!

Right, that’s the bad bit out of the way.

I love the new cups and yes I fell for it and have kept a few, adding to the club funds by £10, though 4 of those were found left behind after the game.

Magic 23

Perry Humphreys, 23^rd Man – what a star performance?!

I am certain I am not the only Warrior fan who was less than impressed when realising that T’eo had been replaced at half time, but what a 40 minutes this lad had.

After the game I had a great experience, talking to a lovely lady at the bar when my daughter [5 year old] came to the bar to remind me that SHE is playing rugby Sunday, to this I explained to said lady that I was very proud of my daughter taking up rugby at such a young age – to which to turned to me with a pint in her hand saying “imagine how proud you will be when you get to buy your 21 year old son a pint after playing in the Premiership” – It is fair to say Perry’s family are of the same opinion as me, he had a blinding game!

Gloucester, scored 23 – Against 14 men

I can’t really fault Gloucester, they played well and didn’t leave any points on the pitch.

Worcester, scored 23 – 50% kick rate is killing us already!

The Performance - It really does make me feel vindicated.  

Following the Sarries defeat it was pretty hard to be a positive voice in the cloud of despair.  I was of the opinion that we had played well enough and showed signs of a well organised side - just that we were playing against the best club side in the Northern Hemisphere, if not the world!

Another player deserving a mention is DOC 

It was reported before the game that Donncha had a point to prove, having been left out of the team to face Sarries and my god did he prove it.

If it wasn't for the performance put in by Perry then Donncha would have got my man of the match.

That Result - Before the game I would have taken a draw.  Following our first half I still can't help but feel cheated.  When asked, Daisy declared Worcester would win 18-0, so that is where the money went.  Yet another example of head being over ruled by the heart.

That was by far our best performance in a long time and if not for a few key things going against us then we would have got the win.

The table after our first two games shows us not to be bottom, but we do have the worst points difference by a long way.  The beating we took from Sarries is going to take long time for us to recover.

23 is a pretty special number.  It is; A prime number, subject of multiple films, thought by the Chinese to be a symbol of sexuality, A holy number for Discordianists and has been used as a lucky shirt number for sports stars like Jordan & Beckam - well now it is My Magic Number, thanks to Perry Humphreys and the rest of the 23 man squad from last night.

What do we need?

We Are Through Week 1 

And we are the only team without any tries, bonus points and/or points on the league table.

Before you panic, this is not a doom & gloom post, it is a general look at what we are missing after week 1 and a look ahead to our M5 derby with Gloucester on Friday night.

Missing

Try scoring opportunities - We did everything but score in open play against Sarries.  Our scrum was solid, our line out mostly worked and our kicking has been worse, but still we did not score.  So why do "people" always say get the set piece right and you will score?

I guess the first response to that is they may not have considered the Sarries Wolf Pack defence. Is it possible that we were not all that bad and that they were just that good?  The general feeling among fans and TV "experts" is that Sarries had a slow start then put 29 points on us once they got going.  

Maybe we were just playing much better than expected and it took them a whole half to beat us?

Even I am not that optimistic but it is food for thought.

Three of our best - Our backs have been talked about all preseason and we were missing three of the highlights; Chris Pennell, Bryce Heem and Francois Hougaard.  

ANY team in the Premiership would miss those three outstanding players.

Answer

Did my second point answer the first?  Have we spent all summer assuming we would be at full strength and not have a plan B?  Is it just really bad luck that Biggs is also injured so we had to play our third / fourth choice winger (Though he played pretty well) Hammond against the European Champions?

Friday Night vs Glaws

I always struggle with an early [in the season] M5 derby, there is nothing riding on it yet.  We both lost in dramatic second half fashion, though I am not sure I could have been so positive if we had lost after leading 31-7 at home.

In the real world I work with a lot of Gloucester fans, some we not too shocked by either of our results at the weekend, but they pretty much all think we can bag a win at home against them.

I am on the Superbru app trying to predict results.  Looking on there it would appear our last 12 games, going back to 2007 have been pretty evenly split

 They have only beaten us once at Sixways so that is good enough for me to predict a win.

What do we need?  

A bit of luck wouldn't go amiss.  Some injury rest-bite would be lovely and for the boys to have some confidence in their ability to play on our new pitch, that would be huge!

We are still going to be missing; Pennell, Heem, Hougaard and now Schonert and maybe GJ.  Very key players in critical positions.

One final thing we could do with - some more of this:

  

45 Positives from a Pretty Negative Day

Some may ask how I can find so many positives from the London Double Header vs Sarries - simply put I have cheated.  42 of the positives are the first half of the match itself.

Being honest, did you really think we were going to beat the current Premiership and European champions?  I thought not.

Did I think a Fiver @ 8/1 was worth a punt? Yes I did.

Did I also cover off my bets, which included an accumulator ruined by Falcons, by betting on Sarries to win?  Yes I did.  Does that make me a bad man?

I always have heart and head battles when it comes to My Worcester Warriors.

Like the new kit.  I love the home shirt, but usually I buy the away shirt first.  When I first looked at the new away shirt I thought it was great, then I took a closer look at the logo and stitching and I can't get to grips with it.

The logo looks inverted and when you are watching on TV or looking from any sort of distance you cannot read the Worcester Warriors, within the logo.  As a side note, Three Pears on the back is hardly decipherable at any point when watching on the TV.

In this shot of Lozowski scoring against us the club logo looks inverted on the shirts and the shorts.

A simple change back to the blue logo (also for the Under Armour logo) and we have a really nice shirt.

Sadly when I tried to point this out to Jim O'Toole it all got a bit out of context:

White and / or yellow on yellow just doesn't work [for me] but it is OK as I have already invested in a very nice Warriors training jacket in black and green.

So, 45 positives... the first 42 are the first half of the match yesterday.  Brilliant start and having read about the Falcons win the night before I fancied we would not be too far behind them at the end of week 1.

I have no idea what happened at half time but a different team came out for the second half.

Is it possible, having seen a 31-7 lead turn into defeat, that Laurie and Carl attended the same Halt Time Talk training session down at Castle Grim?

Within 2 minutes of the second half our heads were down, we were trying all sorts of unstructured defence, attacks and flicks and playing straight into Sarries hands.  The exact opposite of the first half.

There were many positives from the first half, but I have chosen two front rowers as my player positives - Val and Niall.

Val, as part of the pack, made the Sarries pack look tame.  We held almost every scrum and competed at every break down, throughout the first half

Niall Annett was my man of the 1st half.  The odd over throw but hooking, tackling and breaks were outstanding.  For not the biggest of forwards his pound for pound tackling is amazing.  He is consistently becoming our first choice hooker and an accomplished player.

Is it foreseeable that he would get a further international call up?

If I am not at the ground I tend to watch our games at home with the family.  I say with the family, but if it is not going well then they tend to leave the lounge and head to safer areas of the house until the game is over.  Around 50 minutes into the game this started to happen yesterday; my [5 year old] daughter gave me a kiss before leaving the room saying "don't worry I am playing tomorrow" followed by my [7 year old] lad saying "I will score loads of tries for you tomorrow".  Melted my heart and it almost made me happy!!

That's only 44 positives I hear you cry - It can only get better!

Positive 45 is a combination of factors:

45.1 - We were playing away from home
45.2 - We were playing Sarries, current domestic and European Champions
45.3 - It was Carl Hoggs first game in sole charge
45.4 - Chris Pennell will return
45.5 - Francois Hougaard will return
45.6 - Bryce Heem will return

So, taking into consideration all of the above - No I do not think we will be relegated, still!

Yes Falcons won and yes Bristol put on a great show, but we went toe to toe with Sarries and for all of the reasons above I chose to remember my 45 positives and ignore the second 40 minutes and continue to support My Worcester Warriors.

I also feel for a bunch of our very loyal supporters that made the trip to HQ yesterday and their bus broke down on the way back:

Not a nice way to end a day after such a thumping on the pitch.

So I used the Lindsay Clayton over night rule, brought my thoughts together and now figure it wasn't all that bad.

On the upside, today Daisy starts rugby for the first time in the WRFC U7's coached by the amazing Tim Cunliffe and Aidan continues his road to rugby for the WRFC Lions U8's with myself and Steve Perera coaching and trying to pass on our passion for the game to the next generation.

On the insistence of his Mum, Aidan is also sporting a nice new head guard this season, ahead [excuse the pun] of him going into contact rugby next season.  I do get it, but I'm yet to be convinced he actually needs one. Though plenty of kids were wearing them in the U7 festivals last season.

10 Positives Ahead of The Premiership Season 2016/17

What a week for the Warriors and WarriorPhill - Excuse me for writing about myself in the 3rd person, but it seemed to fit.

The club has faced a tough test in Munster, a lower league test in Jersey and I went to the launch of the Premiership season - who came out on top?

It certainly wasn't the Warriors - or was it?

Those that know me will be aware that I am generally the positive one, that guy that can find the silver lining after a big defeat, who can see an opportunity when the players are not on top form and I usually let my heart predict us winning a game rather than my heads defeatist Big L - this season is going to be no different.

Social media is great, I saw a post following the Munster game goading people to write something positive, I was really chuffed to see that people who were actually at the game (this poster was not) were writing positive tales - mostly about Ryan Lamb!!

These are some samples of post Munster Tweets to @rugbyworcs:

The Premiership Rugby guys know how to throw a party.  Nice goody bag supplied on arrival (A Gilbert Ruck Sack with plenty inside) and then we had front row seats to see Martin Bayfield discuss last season and the coming season with a joiner, a winner and an owner:

Mr Bayfield did confirm that Rugby Tonight will now be on a Wednesday night and that they will be doing highlight programmes on a Saturday and Sunday night.

So, what is there to be positive about?  It would seem reality is trying to kick us at every corner; Dean Ryan has gone, Francois Hougaard is injured, Bryce Heem is injured, Chris Pennell is injured, we lost to French giants Clermount, Championship Jersey and Irish Giants Munster and the home shirt isn't on sale in the shop yet - let alone a new cotton version (the latter being a joke).  With all of this going against us how can I still be positive for the coming season?

Positive 1 - Dean Ryan had a plan; and Carl Hogg was part of it, as was the rest of the coaching team and the players we have brought in.

At the Premiership launch event in Twickenham i was lucky enough to sit down and chat to Mr. Hogg and he put it very simply - Dean Ryan was the story teller, the back room staff and players were actually performing his story.  The only difference now is we have new story tellers.

Positive 2 - Chris Pennell was a little held back last season due to what has now become a neck injury.  Where have we heard this before?  Yes following his ankle injury which was followed by his best season ever and playing every minute of season season apart from 15.  We are in for great things from Mr. P when he returns

Positive 3 - GJ is our leader on the pitch and he is feeling super confident.  I don't think I have ever met anyone more laid back, especially in a room full of people wanting your attention and sound bite.

As a captain I think he is fantastic and a solid player.  He knows how to bring players along with him and when the dirty work is needed, his head is always in the mix.

Positive 4 - I speak with a lot of rugby fans and spent a great day with 10 premiership fans as passionate about their team as I am about the Warriors and not one of them could see us being relegated.  Now it may just be because Falcons were not in attendance but the general consensus was they would be going down with us to battle it out with Bristol and (all except 2) thought Gloucester were going to be sucked into the battle to stay up.  We will see.

Positive 5 - We do not have Bristol's fixture list.  Andy Robinson confirmed they are playing their home games on Friday nights and Sunday's because of the Wendyball and we do have the current champions for our first game but; Quins away, Saints home, Wasps away, Exeter home & Sarries at home - I do not think your first September (back) in the Premierhsip could get any tougher.

Positive 6 - Tigers do not fair well on plastic pitches so we may have a home chance of beating them this season.  One Tigers fans explained "Now you (Warriors) have a plastic pitch that is three games we can't win next season"

Positive 7 - We have recruited well.  I agree that there seem to be some imbalances; 100 back rowers and only 2 fit scrum halves but our "Ins" list, includes:  Will Spencer, Ben T'eo, Jackson Willison, Mama & Faosiliva which does seem to improve our stock when compared to some that left; O'Shea, Fatiaki, Stevens, Gilbert and Sanderson

Positive 8 - Statistically we didn't have a bad last campaign:
Official Opta stats for 2015/2016 show Warriors players in the Top 3 for:

Carries - Chris Pennell
Metres - Chris Pennell
Offloads - Bryce Heem
Breaks - Cooper Vuna

Though we were also 1st, 6th & 10th for penalties.

Positive 9 - We may have lost the games but we have won the experience

Be honest, preseason games do not win you anything.  The game in France was preceded by a 7 hour coach trip, Jersey we contended with terrible weather & Munster we flew over the day of the game - not ideal and all terrible excuses for the results but, we didn't break too many players, people like Stelling, Short and Humphreys got time on the pitch and Lamb seems to have found his Play-off winning form again.

Positive 10 - This will wind up AJ, but we (fans) do not know our Best XV

I think this is a positive, it means we have competition for places.  that is only a good thing and the kind of headache, engineered by Ryan but loved by Hogg.

Nailed on starters: GJ, Hougaard, Heem, Pennell - thats about it.

Probable starters: Annett, DOC, Heathcote, Vuna - based on last season

My expected starters: Ruskin, Cavubati, Olivier, T'eo

If we keep these guys fit, support comes from the likes of Schonert, Dowson, Arr, Willison and co then we are ready to cement our place in the top flight and start planning for greater things.

Back to my opening question then - who came out on top?

Come on You Warriors!  Bring on the 2016 Season.

2016 / 2017 Off The Pitch

Off season is a sad time for Me.  I miss all of the fan banter, obviously the action on the pitch, but as a Warriors fan it generally means massive changes off the pitch.

This season has been no exception.

The Positives

New Pitch
Love it or hate it this must be seen as a positive.  The owners have identified an opportunity and invested six figures in the club.  It also means we (Warriors fans) get to see the newly formed Worcester Valkyries.

Worcester Valkyries
Our ladies team have been performing so well over the last few years but never managed to get the exposure and coverage they deserve - well now they will get it.
Brought into the Worcester Warriors brand, they get funding, training facilities, new kit and a fan base - games to be played at Sixways (pending changing room organisation) which can only help build their profile.
It has already had a positive affect on my daughter who now wants to play for Worceter and will start training on 5th September with Worceter Rugby Football Club
Follow the Valkyries progress: Twitter

The Not So Positives

No DoR
The Director of Rugby role has always been an odd one to me.  Seemingly the link between the board and the pitch.  When things are good he gets the plaudits and when things do not go to plan the head coach tends to get the sack.  Yes you guessed it - I'm not too fussed about the loss of our figure head.
Hogg and the guys know the plan, they have been eating, sleeping and training it out for as long as Dean Ryan has been promoting it on TV and in the press.
The one thing I think we will miss is his rugby brain.  He clearly had a great vision and knew his stuff.  Time will tell on this front but I am pretty sure his man management and people skills will not be missed.

First Match Blues
We did it - New pitch came in early so a couple of extra home preseason games were planned - brilliant!  Though we subsequently forgot that 2000 rugby fans, on a Friday night may need more than 1 bar and 4 people serving pints.
10 to 30 minutes - the generally reported time it took to get drinks.  Many people just not bothering. The reason for this:

Nice of the club to explain but I still think 1 bar and 4 people serving contributed to the delays more than frothy beer.


On the rugby front, many positives came from the evening:

Stelling certainly looked like he belongs back in the 1st team squad. Massive tackles and must have made more runs than the rest of our team put together. 

Appiah looked good with ball in hand 

"Little" Kitch didn't look happy when he came off! 

Xiourouppa had a corker. Very fast for a 7 though missed tackles on Elias Caven a few times 

Huw had a quiet game compared to previous performances

de Cothi looked great for a lad that was made to retire from our academy not so long ago 

Tiff, sadly for me, has not progressed from being an 18 year old hot prospect and must now accept he will probably become a Championship player 

Shillcock has certainly bulked since his first arrival on the scene and looked pretty solid at 15. 

It made me chuckle to see Ryan "Water Boy" Mills sporting; Under Armour - boots, socks, base layer, t-shirt, jumper and matching hat. Some may say "Full Kit Wan***" 

Fair result on our great new pitch. I think they had a much more experienced side than we did and they certainly had a much more experienced coaching side there. Quite odd seeing JT in Bristol kit. Was nice to see his wife still sporting a Warriors scarf. 

WarriorPhill Returns

After a season long rest I am back and blogging.

In the real world, away from Facebook, Twitter and all things social life gets pretty hectic but sometimes you just need to make time for the things you enjoy - for me that is sharing all things Worcester Warriors

The Plan

As per previous seasons there will be reviews, thoughts and talking points but this time I will be getting some help from my @rugbyworcs partner in crime AJ to provide all the latest news from the internet on our Worcester Warriors.

The Beginning 

So here we go, using my views from forums, Twitter and Facebook - Welcome back to WarriorPhill

Meet WarriorPhill & The Warrior Mason's

One massive change since my last blogging is the addition of 3 season ticket holders to the family.  

My long suffering wife Lydia, newest rugby convert Daisy and Mini Super Fan Aidan.

Aidan is a current member of the WRFC Lions - U8's and massive Ben Howard fan.  He has many views on the team that will be shared on here, in some cases just to see if you guys can help me understand them!

We will keep this blog alive, Tweets of interest will continue to appear on the site and we will share all our views on Worcester Warriors as the season goes on.

Please do keep coming back and help spread the word - Come On You Warriors!