SEEING Worcester Warriors well established in the Premiership and being involved in the top European club tournament on a regular basis is the objective of new chief executive Jim O’Toole.

O’Toole has enjoyed his first week in the top role at Sixways and firmly believes the club has got what it takes to become a force in English rugby.

“My vision is the strategy which the ownership group have established,” said O’Toole, who has joined Worcester from Premiership outfit London Irish.

“The long-term aim is to be a successful, well established Premiership club competing in the top European competition on a regular basis.

“That strategy and vision hasn’t changed but that’s what everything we do will be geared towards and all my thinking and planning will be based around that general objective.

“The ownership has been very realistic about it.

“The first job is to get promoted and, once we are up, my mindset will change and we will start planning for building.”

O’Toole had previously worked as a consultant for two years at London Irish before taking on a role as the club’s commercial director.

“I had been at Irish for various job roles in the past, one which I turned down and one which I couldn’t get to the final interview for so it was third time lucky,” he said.

“I enjoyed it and I had a tremendous team of people. London Irish is a great brand with fantastic supporters.

“Funding had been a problem for a couple of years and performance on the pitch suffered because of the inability to get the salary cap historically. That was part of a broader back story of change of ownership and then there was the takeover which was a very exciting time for the club.

“We were having some really good commercial successes and, in sponsorship terms alone, we were fifth in the Premiership in terms of performance which was slightly better than the on-field performance and this job came up.”

His responsibilities at London Irish were “everything apart from rugby and finance”.

“It’s different at Worcester because I have the oversight of the whole business and I have 25 years’ experience of working with some big sports marketing propositions,” he said.

“I have consulted to Manchester United for six or seven years on their international sponsorship programme, which was particularly challenging because I am a Manchester City fan,” he joked. “I have worked with the FA Premier League, Vodafone, Ferrari and loads of big sports brands and I have relevant experience in rugby.”

O’Toole certainly has a passion for rugby — he has just completed a three-year stint as chairman of Beaconsfield Rugby Club in Buckinghamshire.

He was previously the club’s junior chairman and an age-group manager as his son progressed through the age groups.

“I know the two sides of the fence,” he said.