BEN Hinshelwood is pencilled in for training this week at Sixways after his World Cup came to an end.

Worcester Rugby Club's star centre jets back into Britain tomorrow and he will resume training on Wednesday following Scotland's weekend quarter-final defeat against Australia.

Hinshelwood's return has given director of rugby John Brain a massive boost ahead of their National One trip to Plymouth on Saturday and he expects the international to be available for selection.

"Ben will train on Wednesday and comes into strong contention for a place against Plymouth," said Brain.

"He is a very influential player for us and we're pleased to have him back. The trip will obviously take something out of him but we would expect him to be over that by the weekend. We will have a chat but I'm sure he will be keen to play."

Hinshelwood will join up with a buoyant squad after Worcester went to the top of the table following their 59-24 win over Henley and Pertemps Bees' loss at Orrell.

With a number of important games ahead of them in November and December, though, Brain is warning his troops that the hard graft starts now. "I think we deserve to be there after playing most of the teams in the top half of the table," he said.

"The focus is, of course, staying there. We've said to the players that we have five games up until Christmas and it's like a mini league now.

"We have to be positive and we know that if we are unbeaten by the time we've played Birmingham on December 13, we will be in a very strong position.

"We all know what we have to do. We are into the business part of the season now and the guys are focused on the task in hand."

With players such as Werner Swanepoel, Richard Bates, Christian Evans and Neil Lyman all getting game-time after injury and this week's return of Hinshelwood, Brain is relishing selection for Plymouth.

"It's an extremely interesting selection for Saturday," he added. "We've got our captain Werner Swanepoel back and we will need all those players for the games ahead."