[Abmatt]

Warriors | 15 Jamie Shillcock, 14 Perry Humphreys, 13 Oli Morris, 12 Francois Venter (CC), 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Gareth Simpson, 1 Marc Thomas, 2 Niall Annett, 3 Christian Judge, 4 Matt Garvey, 5 Joe Batley, 6 Kyle Hatherell, 7 Ted Hill (CC), 8 Matt Kvesic.

Replacements | 16 Scott Baldwin, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Murray McCallum, 19 Justin Clegg, 20 Sione Vailanu, 21 Sam Lewis, 22 Will Chudley, 23 Ashley Beck.

[Touchliner]

Toulon team:
1. J Gros
2. M Sosene-Feagai
3. K Brookes
4. S Rebbadj
5. L Timani
6. C Du Preez
7. R Lakafia
8. F Isa
9. B Serin
10. A Bellau
11. G Villiere
12. D Labvorde
13. R Rebbadj
14. J Wainiqolo
15. A Luc

Replacements: A Etrillard, F Fresia, B Gigashvili, Q Roux, J Ory, M Smaili, J Blanc, G Cordin

No Parisse, Etzebeth or Kolbe

[TeflonTed]

To complete the Toulon picture:-

Absents blessés ( Injuries)
Brian Alainu’uese (dos), Théo Dachary (genou), Eben Etzebeth (commotion), Matthias Halagahu (épaule), Julien Heriteau (face), Mattéo Le Corvec (épaule), Leone Nakarawa (mollet) Charles Ollivon (genou), Duncan Paia’aua (mollet), Emerick Setiano (ischio).

Hors-Groupe (not selected)
Louis Carbonel, Cheslin Kolbe, Sergio Parisse, Kalani Robert, Atila Septar, Sonatane Takulua, Petero Tuwaï, Adrien Warion.

[A38]

Oh, well. There was a chance of a losing bonus point but it didn't happen.

Too many penalties at the breakdown were awarded against Worcester, particularly for holding on, and these seemed to tip momentum in Toulon's favour. Whether that was down to Toulon's skill, Worcester's mistakes or the referee's interpretation I was too far away to have an opinion.

Whether it was right at the end to continue to batter away with the forwards against a very solid pack I do not know but there was speed on the Worcester wings which was under utilised.

It will have been good experience for Worcester's young players, particularly Simpson and Smith, and although it is a cliché, lessons will have been learned for the future.

They key point is, as ever that, if Worcester are to progress, the pack needs strengthening. I am sure that the management at Sixways know that only too well and that it is very much at the top of Diamond's to do list.

[TeflonTed]

Harry Doel may as well have sat in the front row of the east stand for the last 10 minutes of that game. Toulon didn’t bother covering that wing once they saw he was being ignored.

Agree we were very slow to pick up on Sir, how many times were we pinged at the breakdown?

And why can’t we get some urgency into our lineout set up? With 7 minutes to go and 2 bonus points on offer we took forever to get organised. 3 times.

We weren’t so much outplayed as we were our own worst enemies.

[Latecomer]

Toulon had two (sometimes 3 !) players over the ball at the breakdown with lightening speed and we were miles too slow to counter that, meaning we were pinged for holding on goodness knows how many times. We really need to be much sharper at the breakdown if we are to compete.

[Underdog]

I think everyone* associated with the club recognises that the pack needs improving in terms of personnel and power, but one of many great intangibles is the coaching they are getting too. I would hazard a guess that side by side with the rest of the league, our forwards don't give a lot away in terms of sheer bulk or muscle mass. Dynamism is usually the answer here, another intangible. So what's the difference?

I watched a bits of the Connacht/Leicester and Cardiff/Quins games. The obvious players stood out as they always do, but other less heralded forwards were also superb. Collier was outstanding at 3 for Quins (and would be my choice to start for England in the 6N) and the Tigers back five were so disruptive of the Connacht maul and properly strong in contact. Both packs looked very well coached and drilled.

It's not a blame game that I'm trying to start, but how much responsibility should our coaches take here? I suppose you could point to Hatherell for a player that has improved under their guidance but not many of our forwards have kicked on in the last year or two. Certainly no one in the tight five or as a unit.

So it's all well and good asking the owners to dig a bit deeper but do we know what we're going to do once we've signed these players?

*Perhaps with the exception of the current pack's mothers.

[TeflonTed]

Underdog, it’s a good question (or 3) that you pose.

The ongoing issue for decades is that our permanent position as tail end Charlie must make recruitment difficult, and a larger proportion of our squad compared to most other Premiership teams must be considered as decent journeymen, squad players, rather than outstanding talents.

Not all, of course, and I’m still mystified as to why DvDM and Sutherland came, and there’s no doubt that players like Shillcock could be top class…..and possibly would be elsewhere. Doel’s obvious frustration at being totally ignored by his teammates for the last 10 minutes on Saturday was painful to watch.

As to coaching, who knows? None of us are close enough to events behind the scenes to have a clue really.

All I’m certain of is that we never seem to exceed the sum of our modest parts, and that our energy/commitment/vitality is always mentioned by management, but often seems missing on the pitch.

I’m hoping that Dimes will install a lot more dog in our lads than we’ve ever seen before.

[LIH 2]

Think we were lucky with Duham, wouldn’t be surprised if we signed him early & got a bargain.
He then went onto have a great 6-N, the Lions…. If he was signed afterwards would have been a lot higher.
Sutherland was the surprise to me, as was very well respect & therefore would be in demand. Don’t think we have seen the best of him & if pack improves next year, it will be easier to shine if foot forward.
As to quality, agree with Ted. Think there are very fine margins between very good & great. Think we currently struggle to get great players & that addition 1 sec at breakdown is the difference between very good & great. It’s only a sec or even 1/2 sec but it’s the difference between penalty for whiling on or securing our ball.
Don’t hold its down to coaching. Everyone, who I speak to in the know say JT very respected & Dimes is a hard B & doubt he would tolerate poor coaching.

[TeflonTed]

Think we were lucky with Duham, wouldn’t be surprised if we signed him early & got a bargain.
He then went onto have a great 6-N, the Lions…. If he was signed afterwards would have been a lot higher.
Sutherland was the surprise to me, as was very well respect & therefore would be in demand. Don’t think we have seen the best of him & if pack improves next year, it will be easier to shine if foot forward.
As to quality, agree with Ted. Think there are very fine margins between very good & great. Think we currently struggle to get great players & that addition 1 sec at breakdown is the difference between very good & great. It’s only a sec or even 1/2 sec but it’s the difference between penalty for whiling on or securing our ball.
Don’t hold its down to coaching. Everyone, who I speak to in the know say JT very respected & Dimes is a hard B & doubt he would tolerate poor coaching.

Not sure we’ve seen the “Dimes effect” yet. I have no idea how much he’s been involved in the training process, on or off the pitch. My guess would be that until Solly goes (April) Dimes is restricted to overview of systems and processes, but may have more input as time goes by.

What I am certain of is that I rarely see any Wuss player looking in the least bit concerned about anything. If there was an analysis of which team in the Premiership causes the fewest outbreaks of “handbags” then Wuss would top the table.

Now, I’m not generally in favour of causing scuffles and collar-grabbing jostling as a way to improve things, but I would more often like to see some Wuss players visibly pissed off when things go wrong.

More dog needed.

[A38]

Well, at least somebody had an eye on talent. The papers, The Times today included, suggest that Hatherell has caught the eye of the England management. Credit to the Worcester scouting team I think.

[A38]

Not included in the squad just announced but clearly in the "thought about" column.

[Latecomer]

Personally glad that KH hasn't been selected for England (yet). Think he's better off for the moment continuing to improve playing for us in the Prem.
Look what Eddie managed to do to Ted and Ollie, both their club forms suffered a setback after getting involved with England set up, I'm quite convinced EJ's 'coaching' had a detrimental effect on them.

[TeflonTed]

Personally glad that KH hasn't been selected for England (yet). Think he's better off for the moment continuing to improve playing for us in the Prem.
Look what Eddie managed to do to Ted and Ollie, both their club forms suffered a setback after getting involved with England set up, I'm quite convinced EJ's 'coaching' had a detrimental effect on them.

Agree 100%

[Malvern Man]

The worst adverse consequence of international selection was for Alex Grove when he went to Scotland in Andy Robinson's time. His career stalled after that.