ALTHOUGH another week has passed without Worcester Warriors announcing who will replace Shane Drahm as the club's first choice fly-half next season, Mike Ruddock says fans will be excited by the new signing.

The Sixways director of rugby is closing in on his number-one target, but still has a few loose ends to tie up before he can go public on the deal.

The 2005 Grand Slam-winning coach remains keen to recruit a non-overseas' player into the role so the new stand-off can feature in the same side as Kiwi wing Rico Gear.

Ruddock said: "I'm pretty confident I'm going to get the guy I want - I've been working on it for a little while now and I'm confident things will fall the way I want them to.

"Like every selection pro-cess, I've got a first, second and third choice in mind. We want a quality player and there are a number of options open to me.

"The number-one choice will be exactly what I'm after, but there are a number of good options out there that, even if we didn't get exactly the guy we wanted, the fans would still be pleased with the choice we bring to the table.

"We certainly wouldn't rule out an overseas option, but it would make things more complicated. Having said that, we'll always keep an open mind to anything, but our favourite option is a non-overseas player."

Meanwhile, Ruddock added that Doncaster scrum-half Ben Jones has not yet completed a move to Sixways.

He said: "Jones has not signed a contract - he is definitely someone we are looking at as a potential new member of the squad, but nothing has been finalised yet."