The Wistful Dreamer who normally comes knocking at Sixways at this time of year has not so much been ignored as doused in the contents of Dean Ryan’s bedpan and turned away without so much as a ‘Gardee Loo’.
Perhaps it’s the fact Worcester begin their Guinness Premiership campaign at champions Leicester Tigers on Sunday, or perhaps the evidence of the last ten years is finally counting for something, but for once beguiling talk of Heineken Cup rugby is in short supply at the home of English rugby’s Never Has Beens.
Instead, when asked to expostulate on his new club’s prospects Ryan fixes the questioner in an uncomfortably long gaze and utters something along the lines of: “There’s no magic wand.”
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Indeed the Warriors head coach went even further at the first press conference of the new year when he outlined a slightly chilling account of the position from which he thinks Worcester are starting.
“I am just being realistic,” he says. “We are one of the weaker squads in the Premiership – why would we think anything different? All I can do is maximise what we have got in this group.
“I am pretty confident I can maximise them because we are in a good space, I can’t do anything else but we’ll have to wait and see what that looks like.
“We need our fingers crossed we don’t lose some of that core group for long periods because we haven’t got two or three in each position. You look at the top six squads and look at our squad – you know the answer.
“We haven’t got 35 great players, we have got a lot of youngsters around a core group. I don’t think there are going to be any massive surprises (in selection, then we have got to up-skill that group that sits around it.
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“We have got some bumps but that’s going to be the test of our resources over the year. If that small group get bumped around then we are going to be reliant on youngsters. That’s why we have got all our academy guys training with us full time.
“In the past we haven’t utilised that group, we haven’t seen it as a place for 19-year-olds to have an opportunity to play. That is something we have got to change going forward.”
That’s it then, the next eight months are likely to be more cloud than silver-lining. Jam might be produced but it won’t be tomorrow, it won’t even be next year. Ryan has been tempted from the Sky Sports analyst’s booth to get Worcester out of the sticky stuff on a long term, permanent basis. Indeed without saying so, it sounds as though his hands are tied for the foreseeable future.
The bulk of Worcester’s recruiting was done when Richard Hill was still in charge and while Ryan has added the likes of Chris Brooker and, most importantly, new skipper Jonathan Thomas, he has been left with his predecessor’s squad.
A strange squad it is too, a combination of players who have performed credibly in the Blue and Gold without ever lifting the club up the table and newly-arrived cast-offs from other teams and unknown quantities.
In fact several of the new and potentially influential Warriors – Paul Warwick, Leonardo Senatore and Agustin Creevy – will not even be available for a few weeks. Fly half Warwick, who arrives from Stade Francais, is out for around six weeks after undergoing surgery on his thumb, while the Argentine duo are not due to be free from international commitments until October 6.
“Then they are away again in November,” Ryan notes. “It seems a bizarre way we have gone about the two decent players that can add to this club. They are not here a huge amount.
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“We have brought in Chris Brooker who is close to playing and people like Ed Shervington who are here. They are going out ready to play as soon as they can. The Creevy, Senatore thing is something down the line.”
Which is where Ryan’s focus is concentrated, his ethos is very much one of short-term pain for long-term gain and his mantra is that decisions made now must not ‘compromise’ the future. It seems he remains exasperated by the disrepair into which the Sixways academy had fallen, sidelined as it was, under Hill.
In his last Premiership job, at Gloucester, Ryan did not hesitate to promote from within his youth set-up. Charlie Sharples, Henry Trinder, Ryan Lamb and Anthony Allen, to name but a few, were all blooded and bloodied.
Young Warriors Max Stelling, Ben Howard, Paul Andrew and Mike Williams can expect similar opportunities.
“Everybody around the squad – from youngsters in the academy – is going to have to get used to the accountability and responsibility of playing in the Premiership.” But it’ll be some time before they can even think of anything more.
Players In: Chris Brooker (hooker, Harlequins), Ignacio Mieres (Exeter), Paul Warwick (both fly halves, Stade Francais), James Stephenson (wing, Bedford), Leonardo Senatore (No. 8, Toulon), Agustin Creevy (hooker, Montpellier), Mike Williams (lock, Blue Bulls), Ofa Fanga’anuku (Glasgow Warriors), Jeremy Becasseau (Stade Francais), Paul Andrew (all props, Cornish Pirates), Cam Goodhue (flanker, Auckland Blues), Jeremy Su’a (Crusaders, scrum half), Jonathan Thomas (No. 8, Ospreys)