ACADEMY coach Sam Vesty is set to temporarily take over the reins at Sixways as Worcester Warriors look to “shake things up” for the British and Irish Cup.
Worcester will begin their cup campaign on Sunday with a trip to Nottingham and director of rugby Dean Ryan said he would be promoting several of his coaches for the competition.
The Warriors boss revealed former Leicester Tigers star Vesty would replace Carl Hogg as head coach, with his fellow transition coach Mefin Davies taking charge of the forwards for the next three weeks.
Ryan said he believed the changes would help re-energise the club ahead of their return to action in the Greene King IPA Championship next month.
“Carl (Hogg) will step into my shoes and take more of a strategic role,” Ryan said. “Sam (Vesty) will drive the programme as head coach, with Mefin as forwards coach, but Crossy (Simon Cross) will still do defence.
“This will be a really healthy way of shaking up the coaching team and seeing them in a different environment.
“I think it is a smart opportunity for them to do something more and change the group so it is not the same voices all of the time.”
Scrum half Jean-Bapiste Bruzulier is set to captain the club in the competition which is likely to include a number of players who have helped Worcester Cavaliers secure four successive wins.
Ryan added: “The B&I Cup gives us a nice break. It gives us a chance to get guys like GJ (Van Velze) out and give them some more conditioning and use that group which has been going so well in the A League in the B&I.
“This is another opportunity to strength the depth of this club as well as broaden the base of the coaches, which has not got me or Carl got sat on top of them.
“We needed to win at Rotherham and we did that, so that gives us confidence and we can now use the next three or four weeks to develop and then come back into the Championship programme ready to go again.”