GIVEN the events off last week, Richard Hill was most likely stomping across the Mendip Hills at 3pm on Saturday afternoon — anywhere other than watching a game of rugby.

I spoke to the former Warriors boss the day after he was relieved of his head coach role at Sixways and he sounded genuinely devastated and surprised by what had happened.

It is, therefore, ironic that on the first occasion after his departure the Warriors squad he put together with the intention of creating a swash-buckling, entertaining, play-at-all-costs side finally showed a real glimpse of that being a possibility.

Hill was adamant to the last, perhaps foolishly so, that Warriors would not turn their back on his ambitious game-plan, regardless of conditions under foot or opposition on the field.

Against Northampton on a bog of a pitch at Sixways, the visitors reverted to the recommended ‘up yer jumper’ style of play that suited the weather, while Worcester looked to fling the ball around with reckless abandon.

The outcome was depressingly predictable, yet Hill insisted in the post-match press conference that, in his eyes, his team’s style was more important than putting points on the board.

Although that approach may well have ultimately cost the former England scrum-half his job at Sixways, the future could show there was method in his madness.

Over the course of this season, as the Worcester back-line adapted to Hill’s brave new world, there were inevitable teething problems and the final pass all too often went to ground.

However, against Harlequins, who we should all remember are the reigning Aviva Premiership champions, Warriors were at least their equal for large parts of the game.

Yes, that is the Quins side that has rightly built up a reputation as the great entertainers of English rugby, with a squad littered with internationals and more than a couple genuine British and Irish Lions contenders.

With that in mind, every one of the Warriors fans packed into Sixways must have been delighted to look on as the likes of Chris Pennell, Josh Drauniniu, Alex Grove, Ben Howard and Semisi Taulava took the game to their visitors.

Pennell played like a man possessed. It was his hundredth appearance for the club and I have witnessed the vast majority of those, but I have never seen him play better than he did against Quins.

The full-back showed great pace to support Drauniniu and score the opening try, but it was his work in running rings around half the Quins side from within his own territory to set up Grove’s score that really took the breath away.

All of those players I mentioned will be part of the squad director of rugby Dean Ryan inherits when he takes over at the end of this season and there is no shortage of talent among them.

They have been given the confidence to express themselves on a rugby field by Hill’s bold ideology, but the results in the interim were not good enough to ensure he will be around to witness them finally bear fruit.