By Phill Mason
A TOTAL of seven positives came out of Warriors’ defeat on Sunday. They are Ofa Fainga’anuku, Agustin Creevy, Jonathan Thomas, GJ Van Velze, Leonardo Senatore, Ryan Lamb and Ryan Mills.
We managed to dominate Bristol for most parts of the game and we were missing these seven key players.
Nick Schonert is going to be a star, while Christian Scotland-Williamson (CSW) also has a massive future at Sixways, so when you add that to the other young talent coming through, I am looking forward to seeing our team when Dean Ryan realises his five-year plan.
Going forward, I can see a second row of James Percival and Mike Williams, with an outstanding back row of Thomas, Sam Betty and Van Velze. I would expect CSW to be contesting for a bench spot week in week out.
The nice surprise for me was the performance of Ignacio Mieres against Bristol. I would say it was his best game in a Worcester shirt. Not only did he evidently bring his kicking boots, he tackled, broke their defensive line and looked hungry to play.
Should we have won? Yes. Did ‘Sir’ help us? No. Ashton Gate is a great ground and with more than 8,000 in the three remaining stands it felt like a rugby stadium, but did we need to play 90 minutes? As their winning try came in the 86th minute, I think not.
But if we can field our missing key personnel in the return fixture, I am confident we will take the four points.