I VIEW this season in three phases.
Phase one is up until Christmas where Dean Ryan will be finding out what players can do with a structured game-plan.
This will be followed by phase two where we will start to know the team that will give us the best chance of winning phase three – promotion back to the Premiership.
Phase one is going well at all levels at the club.
On a playing side we still have international class players to come into the mix, see what they can do and put pressure on incumbents and continue to move forward before the pressure cooker of the final phase.
It is not arrogant to think Worcester will be in the final four, it is arrogant to think we have the right to be promoted.
My view is I can see a structure and team coming together that will serve us well over a number of years and not season by season.
Bristol, meanwhile, are a strong team as they have a belief and a foundation of a proud and passionate support with the hunger and after many years the money to succeed.
Their supporter base has – by and large – stuck by them in the ‘wilderness years’ and how much hurt do they feel from last season, especially seeing how London Welsh have performed to date in the Premiership?
Could this hurt be a decisive factor at the end? Well, only time will tell.
By Dave Long