Can Warriors let Goode times roll?

Judging by these travel plans, it is clear the players have very different ways of unwinding compared to the head coach but, regardless, everyone at the club richly deserves this end-of-season down-time.

Instead of the pressure receding with every Warriors victory last season, it was cranked up a notch with each Championship match Worcester played, culminating in the tension-racked two-legged play-off final success over Cornish Pirates.

However, whatever the pitfalls of the second tier comeptition — and they are many and varied — that is behind Worcester now and, according to chairman Cecil Duckworth at the end-of-season awards night, something the club will ‘never’ experience again.

So, while the players and coaching staff enjoy a hard-earned break from rugby, it is time for us to turn our attention to next season’s Aviva Premiership return and consider what may unfold.

Squad-wise, Worcester possess a much more rounded, not to mention united, group of players than those who took the club through the relegation trapdoor under Mike Ruddock’s stewardship two seasons ago.

The stellar names from world rugby such as Latham, Tuitupou and Gear that gave Worcester a sprinkling of star quality to the outside observer are long gone and have been replaced with experienced campaigners.

While the current squad may be a little lacking in the showbiz department without such luminaries, the team itself is a much more cohesive unit and that alone will serve Richard Hill well next term.

There are not so many big egos knocking around Sixways as there once was and the fact the current group have spent the past year beating all and sundry who were put in front of them has generated a winning mentality.

Towards the second half of Worcester’s Premiership relegation campaign, smiles were few and far between at Sixways. The team that took to the pitch were restricted by the fear of what another defeat might — and ultimately did — lead to.

Victories were so sparse that year, it became almost as though the players had forgotten how to beat teams.

Although a season in the Championship was the last thing Worcester wanted back then, it may well turn out to be one of the best things that have ever happened to them.

When they went down, all the talk was of emmulating the likes of Northampton and Harlequins who came back stronger after a season outside of the top flight.

Now is the time to make sure Worcester follow the example of those two clubs and rise Phoenix-like from the ashes of relegation and push on to be a Premiership force.

In terms of recruitment, Hill appears to have been a shrewd operator. The biggest upheaval will be in the second row where three-quarters of the players from this year have moved on.

Leicester-bound England Saxon Graham Kitchener and veteran former All Black Greg Rawlinson have been well replaced by Sale’s Chris Jones and Harlequins’ James Percival, while fringe player Will Bowley has made way for Cornish Pirates’ Ben Gulliver.

Although the retirement of veteran loosehead Adam Black has left a huge void, the capture of Ceri Jones will go a long way to filling it.

Former England scrum-half Shaun Perry has been signed from Brive and he will have to replicate his best international form to climb ahead of player-of-the-season Jonny Arr in the pecking order.

Firepower shouldn’t be too much of a problem with in-form wingers Marcel Garvey and Miles Benjamin looking to start ahead of the likes of Tom Arscott, Josh Drauiniu and Errie Claassens.

However, the vital position for Worcester will, as always, be fly-half. The lack of a top-quality 10 was a massive factor in the club’s relegation and Duckworth’s marquee signing of Andy Goode came a season too late.

While the former England man will now, belatedly, make his Premiership bow for Worcester, the big question is whether he can still cut it in the top-flight.

He was undoubtedly imperious in the Championship, but how well Goode fares in the Premiership will go a long way to deciding if Worcester sink or swim.