Warriors must make most of play-off moment - Vaughan

Worcester Warriors chief executive Stephen Vaughan says he would have "bitten your hand off" if he had been offered a place in the Champ play-offs a year ago when the club was about to make its comeback.

Back then, Worcester's most recent owners had spent nearly two years planning the former Premiership club's return to competitive rugby after it went out of business due to financial problems under a previous regime in September 2022.

Now, after a fourth-placed finish in the club's first season back, a potential semi-final spot is up for grabs if they can beat Chinnor, who finished fifth, in their quarter-final tie at Sixways on Saturday.

"If you'd have said to me in March last year, sat in this room with no coaches, no staff, no sponsors, no kit, no ticket office, nothing, I probably would have bitten your hand off to be up and running, never mind finishing anywhere," Vaughan told BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"But of course, we pulled the team together and were really hoping to be competitive."

Warriors have certainly been that, winning 15 of their first 22 Champ matches to go second behind all-conquering runaway leaders Ealing Trailfinders.

It could have been even better for Worcester, who were second with four games to go and in touching distance of a bye straight into a home semi-final tie.

But all of those four games were lost as they slipped behind both Bedford and Coventry - the latter hammering Warriors 64-28 on the final day, which Vaughan called "a bit of a horror show".

"We landed in second place with not too far to go, in our own hands," he added. "Of course, we then had designs on [second place], but we were never going to finish first; Ealing had run away with it.

"We had to play all the teams around us, and we played well against Ealing [in the penultimate game], but I think we've let ourselves down probably in the other games, and none more so than Coventry on Saturday.

"You've got to take accountability for it, and it's now about that reaction."

Warriors face a Chinnor side who did the double over them in the Champ this season but Vaughan said the nature of the knockout tie means "anything can happen".

"It might be our last game here this season so we just really ask everybody if they can make it, get along and cheer the boys on on Saturday night because it genuinely makes a difference," he added.

"We really want to take every advantage possible and our USP [unique selling point] quite often is the crowd here, so anything we can do to try to get the boys over the line will do."

Naturally, Vaughan already has one eye on next year and says season ticket sales have "gone very well" and are at "similar" numbers to last year, when they sold more than 4,000 - a club record.

"It is important you try to finish the season on a high really, because the knock-on effect for the season ticket sales and going into next season, it can have an impact 100%," he said.

"I think most people are very sensible. If I had 200 conversations on Saturday at Coventry, 199 of them were 'a really bad day at the office, but we're absolutely delighted to be here, we're going to stick with you, it's great to have the club back and we know that you're going to get better and better'.

"I think people have seen the recruitment, they've seen it being very, very sensible. They can see that we're adding layers all the time."