WE are in a good position heading into Saturday’s match against Plymouth Albion at Sixways because everyone is raring to get back on to the field.

It was nice to have a relaxing week off after the win at Bedford Blues and it was a well-deserved rest for the lads who had played so hard since the start of the year.

We have had an excellent week’s training with players coming back into contention and, of course, two new faces in the squad.

Winger Cooper Vuna is someone Worcester supporters might be familiar with because he played for Australia before going to Japan.

I have actually played ag-ainst Cooper when he was with Super Rugby side Melbourne Rebels and I was with the Bulls, although I can’t remember too much about the game itself.

Cooper is a big, strong player who will add something to our squad and he is likely to get an opportunity at the weekend to showcase what he can do.

It is also pleasing to stren-gthen our backrow department and Sam Lewis from Ospreys has also joined us for the promotion run-in. We are doing our best to make sure our two new arrivals are settling in and are made to feel comfortable.

Looking back at our last match, at Bedford, it was definitely a game of two halves and I felt we lost a lot of ball in the first-half and, full credit to Blues, because they played really well in the opening 40 minutes.

We were 17-0 down at the interval but we showed our character in the second-half by scoring 32 unanswered points to get ourselves out of a hole that we had created.

We had been behind due to our own mistakes – we could not blame it on the sloping pitch or the windy conditions. We struggled to get hold of the ball and we couldn’t create any pressure because we did not go through two phases once in the opening 40 minutes.

We can’t afford to take Plymouth lightly because they showed up well in the match at Brickfields and made us fight tooth and nail in the second-half. They have a new coach in charge and have changed the way they play. But we are at home and we want to show we can do.

I am sure everyone was delighted to see Chris Pennell involved in the England squad for their match in Ireland last weekend.

Chris had booked a holiday with his wife when he got the call-up to be involved with the England squad and it’s nice to know he’s in contention for a place in the World Cup squad.

We all hope that Chris can pull it off because it would be fantastic to see him playing for England.

Chris is talented and I’m looking forward to playing more matches with him.