WARRIORS Director of Rugby Dean Ryan insists he is excited about Warriors’ future but admitted his side have to improve their ‘clinical’ and ‘physical’ nature.
Ryan, who has seen his side finish tenth with 35 points, wants the club to pull away from the ‘strugglers position’ in the Aviva Premiership table next season and believes the focus in now on developing the depth of the squad.
He also refused to set any targets for the 2016/17 campaign and said he was only concerned with the continued growth of his side.
“The Saracens game was a stark reminder of the gap between the top of the Premiership and where we are, especially with the depth of our squad,” Ryan said.
“For this club to keep moving forward we have to increase the depth of the squad by bringing better players in and retaining the players that are already here.
“We haven’t been concerned about what we can do in attack, but we’ve struggled with power and the clinical nature of our kicking game. That will be a challenge we will look to improve next year.
“I think we’ve shown we can be a threat to top sides but we have to develop our physical nature. We need to bring in more premier athletes.
“We saw the impact Francois Hougaard had on the club in February and March and we need to build on that.
“We never set targets. We didn’t set one for this campaign so we won’t next season.
“We can’t finish in the strugglers position every year so we have to break that and I’m frustrated we didn’t manage to pull away from the position we’ve finished in.”
Ryan believes his side are on an ‘upward trajectory’ but said there was still a long journey ahead of the Sixways side.
“The team are positive because we’ve played some entertaining rugby this year and the supporters have got behind us,” he added.
“I’m genuinely excited about the future of this club and I’m confident we’re growing.
“We’re all going to enjoy a short break now before our pre-season begins on Sunday, June 5, when we will be looking to work hard ahead of the new campaign.”