He will follow some illustrious names if he manages it, Lawrence Dallaglio, Matt Dawson, Austin Healey, Josh Lewsey, Mathew Tait, David Strettle and our own Pat Sanderson, Kai Horstmann and Marcel Garvey. We should get to see him in Blue and Gold for the first time against Glaws in the LV= with any luck. Good Luck Chris.

We have signed our first new players for next season, Luke Rooney from Toulon. Welcome to him and hope he proves to be as effective and as much of a fan favourite as the last 2 incumbents of the 15 shirt. He has a hard act to follow in Chris Latham, but that would be the case for whom ever we signed as a Latho’s replacement. Judging buy the games he has had for Toulon, against Sarries, he looks the part, good under a high ball and reads the game pretty well. He has England ambitions which would be why he is looking for a contract in the Guinness Premiership. Michael Lyngh and Staurt Barnes reckon he’s a good signing which can’t be all bad!

As for Chris leaving, his last game will be a sad one for Warrior fans who have taken him to their hearts. His never say die attitude and approachability have endeared him greatly to the supporters. When Thinus left, I saw grown men cry, so there may have to be a flood warning for Latho’s last game. Let’s hope we get to give Chris a proper fan send off with Latho, Latho, Latho ringing around Sixways along with a couple of choruses of Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi.

With Tom Wood leaving us for Northampton Saints we seem to have done a swap with them as we have signed Neil Best from The Saints. It is very sad to see Tom leave as we have seen him grow as a player in Gold and Blue to the England Saxon he is today. He will be very much missed. I know of one young fan of his who will be inconsolable when he takes his leave. In his place there will be Neil Best, former Ulster and Ireland and currently rampaging off the back of The Saints set piece. He will be a very different 6 than Tom, but none less effective, particularly at the breakdown. Really looking forward to seeing him on the opposite side of the scrum to Pat, looks to me an extremely effective pairing.

There will be much speculation as to who else the Warriors will sign for next season, who stays and who goes is always a good source of countless threads on any of the GP message boards along with one or two Newspaper sites too. A 9 seems to be a target for us along with a 10 may be. Props are always needed as we seem to have a habit of running out of them on a regular basis and perhaps there is space on the shopping list for a lock or 2.

I will put my heart on my sleeve and say that I hope that Rico doesn’t leave. May be I see what I want to see but he just has so much class in my opinion. When he has the ball in hand and in space he just looks really dangerous. He reads the game effortlessly and teams tend not to score down his wing. He has had so many niggly injuries since he landed here in UK, literally as he had to have emergency dental treatment within a couple of days of being in Worcester. Which seemed to be a portent of his luck to come. I hope that all our All Blacks stay for at least another season. If I had my way we wouldn’t lose any more players, but I doubt that will happen.

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