I COULDN'T have asked any more of our players on Saturday, they showed more control than they have all season.

The commitment in the forwards was excellent with some superb driving play against a good London Welsh side.

Phil Maynard said before the game that whichever side wanted it the most would win and that's how it pro-ved.

The match gives us a good bench mark against a London Welsh side which has improved a lot from last year.

Games between us and them also have extra needle because of our matches last season.

It was also good to see the young lads reverse their result from last season and come back from Old Deer Park with a victory in the warm-up match.

The spirit of our supporters was also smashing and the singing outside the clubhouse after the match showed just what being part of a rugby club is all about.

We'll need all the support we can get over the next couple of months as we face the most difficult spell of club rugby Worcester has ever faced.

People might expect it to start with a cricket score against Blackheath on Saturday as they arrive at Sixways having lost all nine of their opening games.

But last week Moseley needed really tight defence in the last moments kept them at bay.

I've spoken to Clive Griffiths at London Welsh and Tony Russ at Waterloo and both have warned us not to underestimate Blackheath.

They were thrown together early this season and are gradually improving as they play together.

I played with their scrum-half Aadel Kardooni when we were both at Leicester and he's a quality player -- certainly the best Iranian scrum-half I've ever seen!

Another player to look out for is Dave Merlin, a former Worcester player who could come head to head with our own local lads Nigel Richardson and Duncan Hughes.

Unfortunately the third member of our former King's trio Richard Tomlinson is out bec-ause of his broken leg.

I just hope we can have some fine weather for Saturday, we've now had cold and wet weather in each of our last three games so it would be nice to spin the ball around the backs and play some exciting rugby.

Thursday, November 5, 1998.