Worcester bring in referee to improve discipline

Worcester Warriors head coach Matt Everard hopes using a referee in training sessions will help improve his side's discipline

Worcester Warriors head coach Matt Everard has brought in a referee to work with the squad in training sessions this week in a bid to improve on-field discipline.

Warriors have won two and lost two of their first four games of the new Champ season but have been hampered by their penalty count in the process.

After their opening-round win over Coventry, Warriors lost 28-25 to Hartpury - having led 17-8 - with Everard saying their double-digit penalty count had contributed to their discipline "creaking a little bit".

An impressive 56-28 victory followed over Ampthill before last Saturday's nail-biting late 34-31 loss to Doncaster.

Five first-half penalties helped the Knights build a 22-7 half-time lead which they ultimately converted into victory despite a spirited Worcester comeback that was only denied by a Doncaster try in the closing seconds.

"We speak about being hard to beat," Everard told BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"Have we been hard to beat across the first four fixtures? We have. Do we need to be harder to beat? Yes, we definitely do.

"Discipline is the crux of that."

With his side also averaging one yellow card per game so far, Everard has brought in expert help with a referee taking charge of several training sessions in the build-up to Friday's home game with London Scottish.

"He'll referee our unit session where the forwards will have a good ding-dong in the set-piece," Everard said.

"He'll referee our team session and give feedback to the group where he thinks we've been disciplined and where we need to improve.

"I think it's good for them [the referee] and good for us and a chance to really train discipline in the week."

Everard said he has a set number of penalties that he wants his side to keep to every game but brought in an official to help drive the message home.

"It's something I need to be better at - we spoke about it from day one [discipline] and I need to improve on how that lands as a group," he said.

"It's my job to give a really cohesive mindset and message over how we improve but it's important to remember they are a very new group.

"Each week certain things need to be highlighted and improved on and probably the consistent one across the four games has to be discipline.

"Our attack is firing, we're averaging five tries a game so that is going to make you hard to beat, but if you're going to give teams multiple opportunities to attack you're always going to put yourself under pressure."