DEAN Ryan is adamant he made the right decision to swap the Sky Sports television studio for a Worcester Warriors tracksuit.

The former Gloucester boss stepped away from front-line coaching and began to forge a successful media career as a well-respected pundit.

However, the lure of day-to-day involvement in the sport was too strong to resist and he took up the reins at Sixways following the sacking of Richard Hill.

On his return to a coaching role, Ryan joked: “It’s good for the coaches who are fed up of me commentating on everything!”

He continued: “This was a big decision for me to come back, but the more I am here just confirms I made the right decision.

“I love competing. I am not particularly bothered about the odds, sometimes the greater they are the more fun I have.

“If I can get a group who share that desire to improve, then it makes it good fun. Everything has been right for me in terms of working with them over the last 10 or 12 weeks.

“I am not looking at anything other than making us competitive – it’s as simple as that.

“We have a lot of work to do, we are not hiding from that. We are not the strongest squad in the league. But that doesn’t mean we can’t compete.

“If we understand that and are prepared to work hard, then we will have a lot of fun from turning over the odds.”

Ryan admits Warriors will face a tough season this year and his realism makes a refreshing change from the empty promises of Heineken Cup qualification trotted out by previous incumbents of the Sixways hot seat.

“This Aviva Premiership season is going to be tough,” he added. “As a group, I have been pleased with how we have adapted and worked.

“Everyone is desperate to run to the end of the next 12 months. But it is going to take a lot of hard work and I am delighted this group are up for it.

“We are not always going to get everything we want, we certainly won’t always get what we want result-wise.

“But what we are going to get is certain behaviours right and they are fundamental to us being competitive going forward. As a group, I have been delighted to how they have adapted to that.”