THE ‘next Matt Kvesic’ will be difficult for Warriors to unearth because Worcester’s academy has been neglected, according to director of rugby Dean Ryan.

England back-rower Kvesic came through the once-prolific Sixways youth system, but quit the club last year in a bid to further his international ambitions with neighbours Gloucester.

However, Ryan fears it could take up to five years before Worcester start to generate similar gems again.

The newly-arrived Warriors chief said: “We are chasing the big clubs who have people in their systems from 16, 17 and 18 years old. We’re working really hard to make sure that by next summer we have our system in place.

“That will give us the ability to influence the next batch of 16, 17 and 18 year olds.

“It will be difficult to find the next Matt Kvesic, though, because they’re not in the system now.

“We’re fortunate that academy structures are regional, not like in the ‘Wild West’ days at Gloucester when you could wait for someone else to develop players and then just buy them. So, if a Kvesic turns up in our region again, he’ll come through our academy.

“The key is that when that player gets to 18, 19 and he has a choice, he feels this is the right place.

“That’s the difference — it’s not that we won’t generate them, it’s when they get near the Premiership we can give them the confidence that this place can match his aspirations. I have no doubts about that.”

Ryan added: “If you go back eight or nine years, Worcester had quite a good academy, but it was in that period they had no rights to hold onto them.

“You could generate academy kids, but they could be recruited into other clubs.

“Quins is a great model — they have a squad of 44 with something like 40 English-qualified players and 30 of those are academy-produced.

“If you talk about squads like Quins, which is the best profile, it earns a million quid from EQP and EPS selections.

“We have to move this club towards that profile, but that will not happen overnight. I’d love to, but nine EPS players are not queueing up at my door to come here, so I have to look at how I generate my own.”