WARRIORS captain Pat Sanderson says he's in the best shape of his life ahead of the new Guinness Premiership season.

Sanderson spent much of the summer captaining England to Churchill Cup glory in Canada before returning to pre-season training at Sixways last month.

But he can't wait to get the new campaign underway with Worcester.

He said: "To be honest. I've probably never been better. Fitness-wise I've really had a good pre-season. We've all trained really hard.

"The work ethic has been great from the lads. We've really dragged each other along and I probably shouldn't feel as fresh and as excited as I do."

Despite his heroics on the international scene, Sanderson was omitted from the England Elite Player Squad earlier in the month.

But the flanker's response is to knuckle down and work even harder.

He said: "Clearly at the moment they are not looking for what I offer and whether that's right or wrong in my opinion is irrelevant.

"Those are the people picking the side and what I must do is play better, work harder and train better and hopefully improve myself as a player so that I am what they want. That's the only way there is to respond to being left out of a squad."

Sanderson still believes he can catch the eye of England head coach Andy Robinson with some impressive displays for Warriors.

He said: "You're always disappointed if you are left out of a squad but it's an England squad and you never expect to be in it but you just hope you are.

"Your bread and butter is Worcester and I have to go out there on a Saturday, play well for my club and perform for my club. If I do that, what comes from that is hopefully an England call-up.

"It doesn't affect the process. It just happens to be an EPS squad and you get the advantages that go with it. I'm slightly disappointed but I'd be more disappointed if I wasn't in the Six Nations squad or something like that when I was playing well. At least I've got time to prove myself."

Worcester scrum-half Andy Gomarsall will sit out today's friendly at Llanelli (3pm) after feeling unwell during the week.

n Warriors picked up two gongs at the Annual Premier Marketing Awards. They were presented with the 'Best Club Highly Commended' and the 'Best Club Sponsor' for their relationship with Worcester-based energy company npower.