Worcester play waiting game after Irish veto
STEVE Diamond has branded as ridiculous the five-week wait Worcester face between their final two Premiership fixtures at the end of the season.
Two European rounds in the first two full weekends of this month together with the final at the end of it mean the Warriors, who faced Saracens yesterday, will not play in the league again until June 4 because they have a bye in the penultimate round.
They play Bath on the final day of the regular season, a match which may determine who finishes bottom. The clubs tried to get it brought forward to the middle of this month so Worcester’s players would not spend five weeks thinking about their holidays, but it was vetoed at a Premiership Rugby meeting by London Irish, who sit out the last weekend.
“A five-week gap is ridiculous when you talk about player welfare,” said Diamond, Worcester’s lead rugby consultant. “The problem is the regulations are written in tablets of stone and you need the agreement of all 13 Premiership clubs to change anything.
“This is a fixture which by and large cannot influNot ence anything that affects any of the other clubs, but one decided not to support the move because it was against the protocols.
“Common sense should have prevailed because what are the chances of this ever happening again? A precedent being set should not have come into it.”
all of Worcester’s players will be without a match for five weeks because the Warriors reached the final of the Premiership Cup by beating Gloucester at Kingsholm last week. They will face London Irish at the Brentford Community Stadium on May 17.
It is a tournament designed for emerging players but the holders, Sale, included a number of first-team regulars when they defeated Harlequins two seasons ago and had Tom Curry, Manu Tuilagi and Faf de Klerk on the bench.
Diamond is already planning for next season when he will become the club’s director of rugby. His first priority is the defence which has leaked more than 100 tries in the Premiership this season.
“That is a laughable figure,” he said. “We are going to become highly combative. I will be doing proper exit interviews with players who are leaving because they are honest and know the nuts and bolts here.
“I am looking forward to those candid interviews and setting goals for the players who will be here next season so they will be bigger and stronger when they get back.
“The honeymoon period of Steve Diamond is coming to an end.”