Ryan and Worcester Warriors part ways

Editor

Worcester Warriors have announced that their director of rugby, Dean Ryan, has been released from his contract and will leave his post immediately.

Moving forward, Warriors’ senior management team will consist of head coach Carl Hogg and high performance director Nick Johnston, both of whom will report to chief executive Jim O’Toole.

Hogg, who has six years’ experience as a head coach at Warriors and Gloucester, retains responsibility for the first-team squad while Johnston continues his pioneering work in running the Academy, Medical, Sports Science and Player Welfare departments.

Commenting on the announcement, O’Toole said: “We are very sorry to see Dean move on from Sixways. He has been instrumental in developing and putting in place our long-term plan and we have been delighted with our progress and the momentum we have built-up over the last three years.

“Dean has also helped to build a team around him who are ready to step-up to the next level and build on that progress. For the first time in Warriors’ history we have an active succession plan which has already kicked-in.

“We are an ambitious club with sights on the top six places in the Premiership and the Champions Cup.”

Warriors have invested heavily in a corporate platform which underpins the viability of the club’s long-term ambition to bring the Sixways environment in line with the very best in European club rugby.

And on the pitch, new players Francois Hougaard, Ben Te’o, Jackson Willison and Marco Mama together with fellow new-boys Will Spencer and Matt Williams have strengthened the breadth and depth of the squad.

The Warriors Board has committed to a 25 per cent increase in the rugby budget for the 2016/17 season and is following a long-term strategy based on the development of a solid base of English Qualified Players via an annual £500k investment in the Academy, a £500k Academy house, a £3.5 million investment in top-class facilities and infrastructure and the commitment to spending to the Premiership Salary Cap to make the current squad as competitive as possible.