Stevenson says confident Scottish ready for Warriors

LONDON Scottish scrum-half Jamie Stevenson cannot wait to take on Worcester Warriors this afternoon in the first leg of the Greene King IPA English Championship play-offs semi-final.

Stevenson, who sat on the bench for Scotland A two years ago, has been one of Scottish’s star performers this term and played a big part in them finishing in third place.

Last season, Stevenson was involved in the opening weeks of the campaign before disaster struck against the Cornish Pirates in November 2013. He suffered an injury to his knee at that time so he has been delighted to be involved regularly this time around.

He knows that his side are underdogs ahead of this tie, but said: “We set ourselves the aim of finishing in the top four at the start of the campaign, but the Championship is such a competitive division we knew it would take a really good effort.

“We have grown in confidence since Christmas time and there is real competition for places in our squad at the minute.

“Worcester are a good side, but we know that we can compete with them on any given day and we are all buzzing at the moment.”

His team-mate Lee Millar, the former Gala favourite, said: “We saw in last year’s play-off final when London Welsh upset the favourites Bristol over two legs what can happen and what we have to ensure is that we are still in the Worcester tie by the time we head there for the second leg.”

Meanwhile, Stevenson and Millar’s skipper Mark Bright, who has scored a record 24 tries from the back-row this term, is urging supporters to turn out in their numbers in Richmond.

“We have been really strong at home this season and a lot of our success has undoubtedly been down to the home support we get,” he said.

“They helped us over the line against Nottingham which secured our place in the top four and we need another huge push from them today.

“I would urge all our loyal supporters to come down and help us produce a season’s best performance, which is what we will need to beat an excellent Warriors side.”

Worcester, of course, have a tartan feel too, being coached by former Scotland back-row Carl Hogg and with ex-edinburgh back-row and captain Simon Cross a member of the backroom staff.

In the other semi-final, Bristol take on Rotherham.