RELEGATED Worcester Warriors have received a much-needed boost with the news England fly-half Andy Goode has confirmed he will definitely be joing the club in the Championship next season.
No sooner had Warriors relegation been confirmed, rumours began to circulate that the former Leicester Tigers stand-off was looking to get out of his contract with Worcester.
The Brive play-maker, who recently spent a loan spell playing for South African Super 14 franchise the Sharks, spoke to Warriors chairman Cecil Duckworth over the weekend to confirm he will be honouring his contract.
Worcester general manager Charlie Little explained he expects Goode — as well as all of the other players who have agreed to join the club next season — to be linking up with the club as originally planned for pre-season training.
He said: “We spoke to Andy over the weekend — he spoke to the chairman — and he is coming. He is getting ready and gearing up for the challenge of the Championship.
“That is good news as you hear lots of rumours and it’s not until you speak to the guy and he says ‘I am coming’ that you can be sure.
“I think it will be a stronger squad than the one from the season we’ve just finished — we’re going to be in a different league — but the mission is to win the games, turn Sixways into a fortress again, win the Championship and be promoted back to the Premiership.
“In terms of the playing side, all of the players who have signed for the club are still coming — we have no reason to doubt that.”
Meanwhile, Little also revealed he is excited by the stellar list of names who have expressed an interest in replacing Mike Ruddock, who resigned last week, as Worcester's director of rugby.
Little added that the applicants include a former World Cup-winning coach and the list of interested people will be whittled down to a final shortlist by the end of this week before the interview process can start.
He said: “There is more than 20 names on the list and, of those, eight or nine have Premiership experience, eight or nine have international experience, there’s a couple from the Championship, five or six others from outside and one World Cup-winning coach in there too.
“It’s a substantial list and one to get the mind going — they’ve all brought into what’s going on at Sixways.
“A lot of people are prepared to drop what they are currently doing, maybe move half-way across the world and to take on the project of taking Worcester back into the Premiership.
Specialist rugby consultants will also be brought in by the club to help with the selection process of the next Warriors chief.
“We will use some people that are external to the club, but know the coaching set-up in the UK and will know the majority of the coaches on the list,” Little confirmed.
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