DIRECTOR of Rugby Dean Ryan has admitted fans should not expect Worcester Warriors to hit the ground running when they begin their Aviva Premiership campaign next month.
Excitement is building at Sixways ahead of Warriors’ return to the top flight and their opening clash against Northampton Saints at Sixways on Friday, October 16.
Worcester’s chances of making a strong start to the season will no doubt be boosted by the Rugby World Cup as many teams will still have players involved in the tournament.
However, having suffered successive defeats in pre-season, Ryan said it was important supporters remained patient as he believed his players had a lot to learn about life in the Premiership.
“Let’s deal with the reality,” Ryan said.
“If we think we are going to be flying into the Premiership then we are wrong.
“The key is how much we learn each week.
“We are hugely excited about going into the Premiership and we are going to give it everything we have got.
“But don’t judge us on October 16. Let’s just see how quickly we can learn.”
Warriors suffered a 52-30 defeat to Wasps at Sixways on Saturday and Ryan said it highlighted a number of areas they needed to work on before the start of the campaign.
“I think we showed high energy for that first 15-20 minutes and if we had held field position I think we would have posed some problems,” he said.
“But the fact of the matter is we didn’t and we have just got to learn from that.
“We have to be very careful we don’t store everything up until October 16 and then try and hit each other with a stick about it.
“We are going to have some rough days in the Premiership because of quality.
“That is a sharp Wasps side who are probably going to be building towards the top four this year.
“So it gave us a real insight into how we can operate against that, but at the same time at half time we didn’t feel we we were under massive pressure.
“I would say that in the first half, other than the driving lineout try, we gave them the other two, so that is pretty easy to solve and we have got to get more comfortable at dealing with that.”