Solomons’ attacking philosophy rubbing off on Warriors

WORCESTER will attack their way to Premiership survival says Gary Gold.

Director of rugby Gold says the arrival of assistant coach Alan Solomons in mid-October has resulted in the Warriors refocusing on their attacking game.

The hugely experienced Solomons – like Gold, a former South Africa assistant coach – was appointed on a short-term contract, and immediately identified that Worcester should forego a policy of defencefirst and instead play more expansively.

Fruits of that policy were in evidence with the Warriors earning their first league win of the season with a bonus-point defeat of Northampton before backing it up with a big win over Oyonnax.

And Gold says opposition sides and supporters can expect more of the same in weeks to come.

Gold said: “We didn’t think our processes were going in the right direction – the balance wasn’t right.

“We’d gone too much away from our strength, which is our attack and wanting to score tries.

“When Alan came in it was an observation that he made which was really helpful and it moved the pendulum.”

The attacking philosophy of Solomons, who has also coached Ulster, Southern Kings and Edinburgh, is going down well with the Warriors’ former New Zealand Sevens star Bryce Heem, who scored a hattrick against Saints.

“With the players we’ve got in our backline, every player is dangerous,” said winger Heem. “We’re not going to run everything from everywhere, but when it’s time to go we’ve got the skillset to do it.

“Alan’s guided from a bit of a backseat and his impact has helped us attack a bit more, realise when there are opportunities, and take them.”

Gold believes the return from injury of backs Francois Hougaard and Ryan Mills is pivotal to Worcester’s attacking renaissance.

“We’ve got world-class players back and they make a difference,” he said. “We’ve had games where we should have got a result and many teams I’ve been involved with would have thrown the towel in, but we’re aspiring to get better.”