FRANCOIS Venter is a “great replacement” for Jackson Willison and it is only a matter of time before Worcester Warriors are producing easy-on-the-eye performances.

That’s the view of Venter’s midfield partner, Ryan Mills, who is confident the Gallagher Premiership’s bottom club will start clicking in attack.

Willison was once described by ex-head coach Carl Hogg as the “glue within the side” as the New Zealander played a key role in Warriors’ try-scoring displays.

With Willison leaving at the end of last season to join Bath Mills has formed a new centre partnership with summer signing Venter.

Mills admits Warriors’ back-line have yet to gel but insists he is enjoying playing alongside Venter who made the move from Cheetahs.

“Francois is awesome,” Mills said.

“He has settled in really well. He is a strong boy, runs hard and works really hard.

“We love that. That’s exactly what we want.

“He has obviously played at a high level, brings a lot of intellect to the club around attack and defence and talks really well so he has been a great addition to the club.

“He is a different type of player to Jacko. But we are getting used to each other and I think it is something that can click really well so he is a great replacement.”

Fly-half Duncan Weir is also a new addition to Worcester’s starting line-up this term after arriving from Edinburgh. But Warriors have lost their opening three games.

Mills said his side needed to get to a point where they automatically knew what each other were doing. But he was adamant that would come with more time on the training pitch as Worcester look ahead to Sunday’s trip to Leicester Tigers (3pm).

“We are putting a lot of pressure on ourselves,” Mills said.

“We are creating some very good opportunities but we are just not finishing them and that causes more frustration.

“We have got a lot of new players in the squad as well.

“We need time to play with each other and train with each other.

“But I do genuinely believe we will only get better and when we do click it will be something that will be nice to watch.”

He added: “You need to trust the person inside and outside of you, so defensively I will know what the guy inside or outside me are going to do.

“You don’t have time to stop and look at the guy inside or outside you, see what he does and then make a decision.

“It has got to be automatic and it takes time to get that but we will get there.”