BELIEVE it or not Worcester are going through a bit of a nightmare on Saturday afternoons.

The first team are riding high, beating all-comers and mapping a course to the big time -- but just underneath the headlines the club is battling to deal with a nagging problem.

Their big worry is that the second team are struggling to find meaningful fixtures and it's getting worse.

It means youngsters are unable to continue their progression through the club's ranks while squad players on the fringe of the first team, or stepping out on the comeback trail, cannot prove their value to the first team.

Centre Richard Tomlinson and number eight Simon Devereux are classic examples of the club's problem.

Both are proven players and both are returning from breaking a leg last autumn, but are being frustrated by the lack of meaningful games.

Postponements abound and when the seconds do play they often win by 50 points which is little value to either side.

The root of the problem is that there is no second team fixture list run in conjunction with the first team games and many professional clubs have scrapped their reserves all together.

Worcester have also moved so far so quickly that traditional Midland rivals' first teams would struggle against Worcester's seconds, so there is no easy solution.

So far the second team have played just six games and even three of those were effectively 'A' team games including a host of first team regulars.

Carl Douglas is Worcester's development officer in charge of overseeing the club's conveyor belt of fresh talent and believes the problem will only be solved by the RFU taking the upper hand and setting up a nationwide structure.

"The RFU have got to say what they want in terms of player development," he said.

"We need a framework in place to help players move onto the next stage towards the first team."

Thursday, November 18, 1999.