Gold wants more competitive side

Worcester Warriors coach Gary Gold has announced his wish to reduce his squad size should he extend his contract at the club for next season.

The 49-year-old South African says he intends to cut down his squad size but that also depends on the players he brings in on transfer deals.

“Potentially the squad could even be a bit smaller but it depends on the quality of the signings we are looking to bring in over the next couple of months,” Gold told Worcester News.

“I would want to engage with a lot more of the players and show a lot more trust in them.

“When you start getting squads of 50 and 60 players it becomes very difficult to give everybody a run but you also have to be aware injury rates have gone up in the Premiership.

“That’s going higher now with attention on head injury assessments and you need to take that into consideration.

“You would want a squad where everyone feels trusted to play and you are able to share the load across the squad and hopefully get success from that.”

Gold also intends to raise the intensity of pre-season so that the Warriors are able to compete with teams like Saracens, Exeter and Wasps.

After securing their Premiership status for next season with a 25-19 win over Bath, the South African coach looks all the more certain to say, having played a huge part in a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the Warriors.

However, he is under no illusions that a lot more work needs to be done if they are to compete with the heavyweights in the competition.

"I think there is a lot of work that still needs to be done but the guys have applied themselves since I’ve been here," said Gold, who arrived at Sixways at the end of January.

“The pre-season would require a lot of work but it would probably be a lot more of the same so the guys can get used to the level of intensity required to try to compete with the top teams.

“You look at the way Saracens, Exeter and Wasps play and there’s a level of intensity and a pace.

"That does not happen unless you’ve trained at that level on a consistent basis. There’s a lot of hard work to be done but I don’t think a huge amount of changes need to take place.”