WORCESTER Warriors flanker Neil Best will today be keeping one eye on events at Blaydon while he plays in his club’s final Aviva Premiership match of the season against Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens.

The Ireland international is combining his playing commitments with a new part-time role as Warwickshire’s coach.

While Best is playing at Northampton, Warwickshire will be opening their County Championship Bill Beaumont Cup Second Division North campaign against Durham.

“Obviously, I can’t be at Durham today, but I’m sure I will have a few text messages on my phone when we’ve finished at Northampton and I’ll be in touch later to have a chat about how things have gone,” Best said.

“Eddie Simkiss is captain and Al Roberts is team manager so there’s plenty of experience there and I will be at the game against Eastern Counties next week.”

Best was encouraged to apply for the Warwickshire job by Ian Bletcher, the RFU coach and player development officer for the West Midlands, as part of his level three coaching award.

“Coaching is something that I wanted to experience so that I could either rule it in or rule it out post-professional rugby,” Best said.

“It’s in its infancy so I can’t say whether it’s something that I am going to do. It’s been an interesting challenge. Clubs have had promotion or relegation issues, so it wasn’t easy to get players released for training in the early weeks.

“It’s a reminder of the sacrifices you have to make to play county rugby.

“They don’t get paid for playing, they might have to take time off to get to training and then have travel problems on the arterial routes to the ground.

“So it’s a different challenge to playing professional rugby but it’s one that I’ve enjoyed so far.”

Warwickshire have named a squad for Durham that includes players from Nuneaton, Coventry, Leicester Lions, Broadstreet, Ampthill, Rugby Lions, Sutton Coldfield, Ealing Trailfinders, Leamington, Barkers Butts and Bedworth.