Warrior Carlisle wins chance in place of injured brother (From Worcester News)

Warrior Carlisle wins chance in place of injured brother

5:05pm Friday 27th July 2012 in Warriors

ONE man’s loss is another man’s gain but in the case of Worcester’s Tom Carlisle it was injury to his own brother which gave him the opportunity to impress for the Warriors.

With his older sibling Joe unavailable for the Gloucester leg of the J P Morgan Asset Management Premiership Rugby 7s Series at Kingsholm, Tom stepped in as Worcester took on Gloucester, Bath and Exeter.

Both Bath, who host the finals next Friday, and home side Gloucester named star-studded teams, Matt Banahan and Tom Biggs lining up against Jonny May and Freddie Burns.

As a result it was always going to be tough for Worcester to secure a top-two spot and a place in next week’s finals and, despite an impressive showing from new recruit David Lemi, they finished without a win at Kingsholm — Gloucester and Bath both qualifying.

Warriors lost 35-12 to Bath, 33-24 to Gloucester and 26-24 to Exeter.

But Carlisle, who is still only 20, insists that the opportunity he gained in his brother’s absence will have served him well, regardless of the lack of wins.

He said: “Joe has come through the system at Worcester so I’ve got a bit to live up to, especially with him playing in this last year. But he’s injured at the moment so I actually took his place. “I’m pretty happy about it, it does me some favours.

“It’s always good to try and show your older brother up as well – but he helps me a lot along the way because we play the same position. We train full-time together at Sixways .

“Obviously it was tough out there — we’ve got a lot of new boys taking their shot and trying to make their mark for the season — and I’m one of them.”

Carlisle still needs to earn his spurs with Worcester head coach Richard Hill and revealed he will likely be spending some time on a dual-registration deal this season to get a little more playing time.

But, with new attack consultant Matthieu Rourre having come in, Carlisle has relished the opportunity to have a little more freedom in training at Sixways.

He added: “We’ve got a new French attacking coach, so we want to play a bit of French rugby. We all love it, we want to throw it around a bit.

“Hopefully at the start of the season I’ll go out on loan and get some game time, try and play some ‘A’ League and see where it goes.”

To buy tickets for the J P Morgan Asset Management Premiership Rugby 7s Series, visit jpmorgan7s.com or call 08448-472492.