WORCESTER'S set piece remains one of the cornerstones of their spectacular Premiership season.

Last Sunday, as Warren Gatland surveyed Wasps' victory, he had to concede that the Warriors had troubled them all day in the line-out.

That grudging admiration came a week after a dismayed Rob Andrew put Newcastle's defeat down to Worcester's supremacy in the set-piece.

Now, as Worcester travel to Leeds tonight for their European Shield distraction, an old combination takes over.

Chris Hall will don the number two jersey while Ben Daly -- last season's ultra consistent hooker -- goes back to his rugby roots, at blindside flanker. Suddenly, it's all change for this semi-final, second leg tie.s

With the game offering little more than an interruption to the build-up of Northampton pressure, Daly's appearance in the back row will be the most fascinating aspect of the night for many.

Daly, who began his career as a flanker before his conversion to the front row, has remained a back row option for Worcester coaches John Brain and Andy Keast since the August arrival of the now first-choice hooker Andre Van Niekerk.

The Australian was about to be thrown back into the deep end in November when Worcester took on Wasps at Sixways. They had trained all week with Daly in the back row before the former Glasgow man tore a bicep muscle.

"He's a back row option for us in the Premiership," said Brain, Worcester's director of rugby. We look at what Ben and Andre Van Niekerk can give us together in a game.

"They are two very different players. One is more of a prop, type hooker. The other is a flanker, type hooker. However, there is a way that we can get them both on the field at the same time."

Whatever most do in tonight's Headingley clash, you have to suspect it will have little bearing on the thinking for next Saturday.

However, with the blindside spot still not nailed down, Daly's display may yet give the coaches something else to think about.