Carlisle – Warriors centre of attention (From Worcester News)

Carlisle – Warriors centre of attention

7:30am Thursday 26th January 2012 in Warriors By Tom Guest , @tomguestWN #WENsport

JOE Carlisle is set to play at inside-centre in Sunday’s must-win LV= Cup encounter with Saracens at Vicarage Road (3pm).

The gifted play-maker has shared the fly-half duties with Andy Goode this season, but played outside the former England man as a second-half replacement for Dale Rasmussen in last weekend’s Amlin Challenge Cup defeat to Stade Francais.

Carlisle’s introduction heralded an impressive display of enterprising back play as Warriors staged a late rally against the Parisian powerhouses.

Despite a failed experiment with Carlisle playing at full-back, the Worcester coaching team are determined to use the academy-produced play-maker’s undoubted skills to give Warriors an extra cutting edge.

“We talked last year about Joey playing at full-back — that was more my idea than perhaps coach Hill’s,” smiled Sixways assistant coach Phil Davies.

“When you’ve got good footballers like Andy and Joey, you have to try and fit them in the team together.

“Last year we tried one at full-back because we wanted a right and left-foot kicking option in our armoury. Obviously, we’ve also got Errie Claassens now, but we didn’t have that luxury then.

“We tried to get them together last year, but when they both played against Stade on Saturday, it went well.

“You’ve got Goodey’s experience and he is good at manoeuvring the team around the field.

“Joey has developed that skill and also has a really good passing game, as has Goodey.

“When you put the two of them together, you can play with a lot more width because you have such a bigger passing range at first and second receiver. So, you never know, it might be something you’ll see again.”

There are concerns over Carlisle’s defensive fortitude but the fly-half has worked hard at that side of his game and has shown signs of improvement this term.

Davies added: “When you make decisions, you have to make sure they tick more than one box for the team.

“In certain games, it suits us to have that attacking ability, but in others you really need to defend — but that’s always a debate with Mr Larder! (Warriors defence coach Phil Larder).

“Andy has been made to fight for his place a bit this year and that has brought Joey through — they’ve worked well as a combination and are quite good pals off the field.

“Andy’s experience has helped Joe a lot and Joe’s enthusiasm and skill has spurred Goodey on to do better.

“You are now seeing the result that we have two fly-halves who everyone is comfortable with and we know that whichever one plays, they will do a good job.”