Worcester Warriors - Matt Everard on Ampthill's strengths

Warriors will hope to get out of a performance rut this Saturday (January 31), by claiming victory away against Ampthill following four-straight defeats.

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It will be the third meeting of the two sides this season, with Warriors having claimed victory in the first two, following a 54-12 win in pre-season and a 56-28 win in October.

Their league meeting included a tight first half before Warriors ran away with the game, in a match where Tiff Eden starred, successfully converting all eight of his opportunities to add extras with the tee.

Everard credited Ampthill's fight as their greatest strength ahead of kick-off.

"What I think about Ampthill is they’re full of fight," the coach told Worcester News. "You watch them and they are aggressive and intentful in the contact area, they’ve got a good set piece, got really good half-backs actually, very, very talented half-backs who direct their teams into the right areas of the pitch and are threats themselves.

"But they turn everything into a contest, into a fight and they’re good at it, and we felt that at Sixways.

"Particularly in the first half it was a tight affair and they pulled us into a fight that they’re very, very good at.

"That’s what we’ve seen. They’re a tight group, full of good players, good half-backs and they’re not afraid of the confrontation."

The coach added that while his side know about Ampthill as a team, their opponents have grown considerably since the pair's last meeting, with Ampthill gaining three wins in their last five, including an impressive 36-27 home victory over Nottingham.

"I think we know them as a team and what they’re about, but I think they have grown a lot, I’ve watched them the last four, five games and I think they’ve grown a lot from when we played them at Sixways," admitted Everard.

"They’ve come a long way and their results reflect that.

"We’ve spoken about them a bit but we need to get our own hand in order first and we’ve really focussed on that."