DIRECTOR of rugby Dean Ryan says he would be willing to look overseas to bolster his playing squad for next season.
A large bulk of the players Worcester Warriors snapped up last summer were English and Ryan said they would once again form the core of his squad.
But following the signing of Italian U20 prop Derrick Appiah from Mogliano last week, the Warriors boss admitted the club was also keen to keep a close eye on any talent which becomes available outside the United Kingdom.
“The core of this squad will be English and we have always set out to do that,” Ryan said. “Previously, we have jumped around for all sorts of players that have potentially not been any better than the good English players who want opportunities to play here.
“So the culture and the core of this group will always be based around English and that is the priority, but that does not stop us from bringing in overseas players that we think can add something here.
“We look everywhere because if we get one then it has been worth the search. We have been to Romania with Alex Gordas and we have got a Georgian in Val (Rapava Ruskin), so we have got people who were all over the place.
“You only have to look at the success of Val who was playing for the Espoirs at Toulon and no-one really knew, so if we can get one of those out of every two or three we bring in then that is the sort of pathway we have got to create.”
Ryan said he felt Appiah, 20, who can play loose-head and tight-head, had “enormous potential” to become a star at Sixways.
“The target audience we have got is of people we don’t think are on the radar of other clubs and if we see potential we will follow it through and see if they can fit here,” he added.
“We have followed Derrick and think he has got something. He played in the Italy U20 World Cup squad where his ball-carrying was pretty phenomenal in a side which was not particularly on the front foot, so we followed that and here we are thinking he has got enough potential to come into this system.”