WE return to a place I know pretty well on Saturday.
Having had spells at Quins as assistant coach, head coach and director of rugby, it's a club I've spent a fair bit of time at in the past.
It was one of the games I first looked at when the fixture list was announced and it's always nice to go back there . . . and win!
Nobody wants to return to their old club and lose and that goes for Matt Powell, Daren O'Leary, Pat Sanderson and Tim Collier.
All four former Quins players were key figures in our 33-7 victory back in October and that was a great day for the club. It was our first ever victory in the top flight and we've continued to build after that milestone was reached. We've won another four matches in the Premiership and lie above Quins in the table because of that.
We've both been in and around the bottom of the table all season and this weekend may prove to be a vital one in the campaign. Northampton play Wasps, Leeds travel to a Sale side replenished by their internationals, while Quins face us.
I firmly believe that the pressure is on them to get something out of the game. Everybody looks at their home matches now that we're in the final run-in and Quins will view this game as a must-win encounter.
It's a sell out and the expectation will be massive for them. We will go there knowing that we've put five tries past them this season so we're in no doubt that we can cause them problems. We go into the match on the back of a morale-boosting win over Leeds and confidence is high at the club. There's certainly no fear and we're determined to play our rugby and express ourselves.
It will be a big game for those former Quins players and for Pat it will be his first return since leaving there in the summer. People suggested it was a big decision at the time but I think we've proved that it wasn't such a major departure for him. He made a career decision and it's worked out well for him so far. It's no surprise to us, though. We recognised Pat's talent but also his leadership potential. He's certainly been a major player for us this season and if you talk to Quins supporters they are in no doubt that they've missed him since he came to Sixways.
Tim will also be excited at his return to Quins. He's been the subject of more speculation this week but I expect Tim to continue to build on his superb season on Saturday. He's been great for us since his summer move from London Welsh and we are very keen on him staying at Sixways.
We've told him that and he's in no doubt of how highly we rate his contribution. My gut feeling is that he'll stay on at Worcester. He likes the club and I think he appreciates that we gave him his route back into the Premiership after a few years in National One.
I'm sure that the players were rubbing their hands together after reading stories this week about a proposed £250,000 extension to the Premiership salary cap. It's come about in the wake of the study into player burnout and the need to extend squads.
I can see the pros and cons of it because, of course, it's nice to have extra flexibility when it comes to budgets. However, what you don't want is to extend the squad and have maybe another four or five unhappy players who cannot get a game each week.
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