DIRECTOR of rugby Dean Ryan has labelled Worcester Warriors skipper Gerrit-Jan van Velze ‘an absolute sensation’ and says he is trying to bring other like-minded players to Sixways.

Ryan revealed he will soon be making announcements about current squad players who have pledged their futures to Warriors.

But he admitted that it has been tough trying to capture the services of experienced players from other clubs.

“We want people who come here and understand what we are doing and to come here for the right reasons,” said Ryan.

“Van Velze is an absolute sensation for this club because he’s the type of person who came here to help build Warriors back up.

“There aren’t going to be a lot of those guys but we are working really hard to make sure we find a couple more of them.

“We are still looking for emerging talent and we are still looking for really good people who want us to build this place.

“It takes quite a bit of convincing to get the right quality of player to come to Worcester but we are trying very hard to achieve it.”

Warriors are pushing for an immediate return to the Premiership and are second behind rivals Bristol in the Greene King IPA Championship.

Worcester host Cornish Pirates at Sixways on Saturday and will be aiming for their 16th successive victory at first team level.

One of the stars of the season, powerhouse forward Mike Williams, is being linked with a move to Premiership Leicester Tigers at the end of the campaign.

But Ryan said: “Internally, we are in pretty good shape and we will soon make announcements. Externally, this is when we are able to speak to people who will be out of contract at other clubs at the end of the season.

“Everybody is able to speak to everybody else and we are selling something which we are not quite sure of what is at the end.

“I won’t hide from the fact that it’s tough but I also won’t hide that we have been pretty successful internally making sure the people we want are travelling with us.

“We are not going to get every success that we want but as long as we get the majority, we will keep moving the club forward.”