WORCESTER Warriors head coach Carl Hogg believes the European Challenge Cup has been a good opportunity to blood young players – despite the results.
Worcester have just one game remaining in the tournament against French side La Rochelle this Friday (January 22), where they will look to claim only their second win, having lost twice to rivals Gloucester and twice to Italian side Zebre.
The Sixways side have used the European Challenge Cup as a platform for some of the younger squad members to get experience under their belt, helping them to develop.
“When you look at the tournament’s table and results it’s obviously disappointing, but you also need to look at the exposure of young players we’ve had in this competition,” said Hogg.
“Looking back at the two Gloucester games, they came with a reasonably loaded side and we went for young guys as it was all about opportunity. And for long periods of those games we were very competitive. That will stand us in good stead going forward.
“For me, it’s a fantastic competition as we’ve had three nations in our group to challenge ourselves against, which is a step-up from the B&I Cup last year. The pace and physicality is sharper and there is also a step-up in thought process as well.
“If you play in the Championship or B&I Cup you can have a mistake or two and still recover, but coming up a level, whether it be in the European Challenge Cup or Premiership, if your error count creeps up it’ll have a significant outcome of what you can achieve.
“This competition was always going to be tough, but we’ve always viewed it as an opportunity for some of the younger group to gain valuable experience,” he added.