Worcester Rugby
 |
|
| Full name | Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club |
|---|---|
| Union | North Midlands RFU |
| Founded | 1871 |
| Location | Worcester, Worcestershire, England |
| Ground(s) | Sixways Stadium (Capacity: 11,499) |
| Chairman | Bill Bolsover CBE |
| CEO | Gus Mackay (Managing Director) |
| President | Cecil Duckworth CBE |
| Director of Rugby | Gary Gold |
| Coach(es) | Carl Hogg |
| Captain(s) | Gerrit-Jan van Velze |
| Most caps | Craig Gillies (288) |
| Top scorer | Shane Drahm (726) |
| Most tries | Nick Baxter (88) |
| League(s) | English Premiership |
| 2016–17 | 11th |
| Official website | |
| www |
|
Worcester Warriors Rugby Football Club are an English rugby union club, playing in the English Premiership. Warriors have also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, European Rugby Cup, British and Irish Cup and Aviva A League competitions. Their home ground is Sixways Stadium, and the team colours are gold and blue.
The club was founded in 1871 by the Reverend Francis John Ede, with the first known game played against the Royal Artillery Rugby Club on 8 November 1871. This game was played on Pitchcroft. The club began playing at Bevere in Worcester in 1954 and left Bevere for Sixways in 1975 when the clubhouse was opened. When the league system was formed, the club was placed in North Midlands Division One, a level eight league.
Due to extensive support from their backer Cecil Duckworth, the club were able to build a strong team, with promotion after promotion following. In 2006, extremely ambitious plans were announced for a £23 million development programme, which would see a health club with fitness centre and swimming pool, fully tarmacked park and ride area, and expanded capacity, estimated to be 13,000.
Worcester Warriors were promoted to the (then Zurich) Premiership after winning National Division One in 2003–04 with a perfect record of 26 wins from 26 games, something that had never before been achieved. They were the bookies', and many of the rugby pundits' odds-on-favourites to go straight back down but defied the odds to stay in the Premiership for another season, finishing ninth in the league, after wins against teams including Harlequins, Leeds, a historic victory against Premiership Champions London Wasps and Northampton in a 'winner takes all' end of season finale, which they won 21–19. This match was shown live with more twists and turns off the pitch as well as on it, with then Northampton player, Shane Drahm, who had signed for Worcester eventually starting, and successfully kicking almost everything, after press releases by Northampton stating that he would be a substitute. In the 2004–05 season, despite Premiership survival being their ultimate aim, they reached the final of the defunct European Shield at Oxford's Kassam Stadium, after beating Leeds Tykes in the semi-final. They eventually lost out to the French side Auch. They also managed to achieve a play-off match for the Heineken Cup against Saracens, but their long fight for Premiership survival and an injury-ravaged squad meant that they lost. Their achievements for that season meant that they had achieved much more than they had originally hoped for, as well as earning the respect of the other Premiership sides in the process.
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