WORCESTER Warriors’ season starts tonight, according to jet-heeled try-grabber Miles Benjamin.
The Sixways sensation admits his side haven’t started their Guinness Premiership campaign as well as expected, but insists tonight’s trip north to take on Sale Sharks could be the springboard they need to launch their campaign.
Edgeley Park has been a happy hunting ground for Warriors in recent years as they have returned victorious from their previous two visits and the England Under 20 star is optimistic they can make that a hat-trick.
The Solihull-born speedster said: “We are proud of the way we’ve performed, but in terms of picking up points and moving up the table to where we want to be, the season starts here.
“To be honest, we don’t think we’ve performed badly this year but, at the same time, the league table doesn’t lie.
“If we were closing games out the way we should be, we wouldn’t be in the postition we are.
“We really need to use these next three Premiership games before we play in the European Challenge Cup again as the springboard for our season that can push us up the table.
“You always need a bit of luck, but you also have to stay composed at the key moments in the last 10 minutes of games.”
The confident 20-year-old wing is eagerly-anticipating the extra zing that accompanies the atmosphere of a Friday night game and believes Warriors have done their homework well on the Sale threat.
He added: “Tonight’s game against Sale being an evening match will definitely spur us on — it is strange that the night games seem to have a different buzz to them. We are definitely looking forward to it.
“We’ve ear-marked Luke McAllister quite a bit. He’s come over from New Zealand and been their stand-out player —both last season and especially this year. We’ve marked him as one of their dangermen.
“It should be a good contest between him and Sam Tuitupou — they will know each other well from New Zealand.
“Sale are a good side, who have won the Premiership not that long ago. The foundations are all there, but we’re aware of the threats they pose and we’ve got to make sure we counter those and impose our own game on them.
“With the exception of the recent Harlequins game, we have put together a good run of results outside of the Guinness Premiership.
“We’ve found over the last couple of years that the game away at Sale is where we’ve turned around our season.
“We’ve somehow managed to go there and win for the last two seasons even though they are very tough opposition.
“If we can go up there, put all our plans in place and really focus on how we start, I think we’ve got every chance of pulling off another result.
“You always see it as an opportunity when teams are missing a few players to international call-ups but, at the same time, if they had their strongest side out, we would relish the opportunity to play against their best players.
“We expect ourselves to do a job and perform against whoever we come up against because we expect to be going up the table in this league.”
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