Some Worcester Warrior fans just don't seem to get it - here's why...

Everywhere the sun is shinin'

All around the world, it's shinin'

But cold winds blow across your mind

Confusion (Confusion)

It's such a terrible shame

Confusion (Confusion)

You don't know what you're sayin'

You've lost your love and you just can't carry on (Can't carry on)

You feel there's no one there for you to lean on (To lean on)

Confusion - Electric Light Order

Apologies to anyone opening up the blog today expecting to read a review of the weekend's trip up to Doncaster.

It will appear later in the week.

Today's post, though, is a personal reaction to recent social media discussions between Worcester Warriors supporters and fans of clubs already in the Championship. It is especially directed at those who obviously feel upset about a perceived lack of warmth or welcome emanating from many fans of clubs currently in the Championship following the announcement of the former Premiership club's official return to professional rugby.

It's only fair that I should begin this post by making it clear that on balance I do believe Worcester should have started at the bottom of the national pyramid. The arguments for and against such a decision are well documented elsewhere and I've no intention of covering old ground. Rightly or wrongly, Worcester's place in the second tier of English rugby is now guaranteed come September although, as I understand it, payments to creditors still have to be completed for the club to remain at this level (or above) by the end of next season.

In my view, debating the merits of this decision is pointless now. It's been made, so we must accept it, whether we like it or not. I can also understand the advantages of having Worcester in the Championship next season. Their participation will undoubtedly boost interest both locally (with larger crowds at their away games providing much needed additional income for the other clubs) and nationally (increased media coverage and all the benefits that potentially come with it).

However, it would be unrealistic for Worcester Warriors fans to assume that their club will be warmly welcomed back by everyone, especially by Coventry supporters. The anticipated downfall of Wasps left numerous local businesses facing significant financial losses, some involving eye-watering sums. Maybe it's a just case of being tarred with the same brush, but Cov supporters are fiercely loyal both to the club and to the city. It was ever thus.

One might assume that Worcester supporters would be inclined to keep a low profile, steering clear of any actions or words that could incite additional negative responses. Stay inconspicuous, avoid further disrupting the status quo, approach your return with grace and humility.

Sadly, that doesn't appear to always be the case.

The effects of the resurrection of Worcester Warriors currently permeates my club at all levels and in a season that is fast becoming the stuff of nightmares, for Cov supporters the current difficulties on the pitch are exacerbated by the influence Worcester seems to be exerting off it.

For Coventry fans, the season's end can't arrive soon enough. Suffering 8 defeats in the last 11 Championship games is hard to bear, particularly after the team was atop of the league in early December. It's been a significant downturn, and although no one is holding Worcester responsible for the team's performance, least of all me, the uncertainty surrounding Worcester's on/off return and the rumours about several players potentially moving to Sixways at the season's end have made most Cov supporters less than enthusiastic about Worcester's re-emergence from the shadows.

Yes, we were privileged to have seen the likes of Chudley and Kvesic play at the BPA and we always knew that the latter would make a return there should Worcester be reinstated. We'll surely give him a warm send off after the Scottish game.

We anticipated the possibility of losing one or perhaps two more players. However, we never imagined that one of our senior players, who is highly regarded and respected by most fans, would be placed on 'gardening leave' due to alleged misconduct related to the Warriors. This situation has sparked additional rumours and speculation. Regardless of its truth, it amplifies the suspicions surrounding Worcester and erodes whatever trust remains.

Rumours abound about other players headed to Sixways too, some of them just ludicrous. For instance, just this weekend a Worcester supporter decided it was appropriate to post on Cov's own message board saying that Obinna Nkwacha had recently followed Warriors on Instagram and was this an indication that he was heading that way too, as well as inquiring about his injury. First, the two things just don't follow and secondly, it's indicative of just how poor some Warriors are at reading the room...

...or the forum, in this case.

For me, it makes little difference whether these rumours have weight to them or not and irrespective of whether players are exiting in ones or two or fives and sixes, it's still a cause of great unease amongst Cov fans. There's a clear lack of empathy on the part of some Worcester supporters who seem unable to understand why such discussions might not endear them to us.

Rumours about players leaving abound at this time of year, of course they do. But given all the ill-feeling that surrounds the RFU's decision to allow Worcester back, surely their supporters can understand that it's a tad unwise to find the largest stick possible and with it poke the elephant time and time again?

It seems that Cov isn't the only club to be the victim of such rumours. On the Warriors Unofficial Message Board, one poster suggests that elsewhere s/he's read that 75% of Bedford Blues will be heading to Sixways! Ridiculous as it is, this is the level of suspicion that now surrounds Worcester's recruitment for next season. Interestingly, I've read elsewhere that Hutler and Hitchcock are both off to Goldington Road - perhaps to replace gaps left by players there moving on to...

...and so the rumour mill continues.

If Worcester fans can't see how this is frustrating at the very least for fans of other clubs in the Championship, then they're being myopic in the extreme.

For a good two or three months prior to the announcement of Worcester's re-instatement, several fans of Worcester, warriors all (but of the keyboard variety) felt it necessary to ambush the Cov message board in defence of their club, insistent that their club's current financial situation is no different to Cov's own financial problems 15/20 years previously, a spurious claim that provoked a lot of responses from Cov supporters who felt aggrieved at the comparison, as well as the apparent favouritism being handed to Worcester by the RFU. To them, maybe it's some kind of evangelical mission, to spread the word to any and all, but to others perhaps it's more a case of just winding up any who will listen. Any boy did they succeed.

In fairness, I did feel some of the responses from Cov supporters didn't necessarily hold the Club in the best of lights but such provocation is always going to rattle more than the odd cage. Exchanges of this nature haven't helped bridge what was then just a widening gap and one that is now fast becoming something of a chasm.

These Worcester supporters might well be atypical of the majority, but they haven't helped the cause of their club one iota and there will be fans at Cov whose attitudes have hardened considerably as a result. I know of several who have said there's no way they will go to Sixways next season, some who have said they won't even attend the home fixture at the BPA, even though they are season ticket holders and have therefore pre-paid for the game anyway.

For me, the most unfortunate aspect of all this is that some Worcester supporters still seem unaware of the reasons behind this situation. Meritocracy has always been a fundamental principle in sports, so when a club is forcefully placed into a league, against the will of the other clubs involved, it inevitably causes some resentment.

And when that same club then begins to recruit from the ranks of its own (which it is entirely at liberty to do, of course) and in so doing further upsets the very supporters it really needs to appease, then it's bound to cause some angst.

Cov is currently one of two or three clubs in the Championship that everyone else wants to beat, mostly the result of the club's past successes and its tendency to be still thought of as a sleeping giant. The target on our backs, though, is likely to be that much smaller in September/October when Worcester takes its place in the Championship. When the fixtures are released, Worcester will be the team most fans search for initially—not out of respect for the club or its history, but because there are unresolved issues and lingering wounds that need addressing.

We'll all going to become Kevin Keegans as Worcester take on the mantle of the Manchester United of Tier 2...

...how we'd love it, just love it, if Warriors get beat.

As a footnote, I do appreciate that there are a significant number of Worcester fans who have been far more understanding of the situation and that it's a small number of the more vocal supporters who have created much of the present antipathy towards Worcester Warriors.

The Coventry Rugby Supporters Club has liaised with supporters from Worcester when they have made the journey up to watch Cov on a couple of occasions over the past two seasons. These fans have shown a real and laudable willingness to acclimatise themselves to the Championship, making a genuine effort to talk to other clubs and their supporters in the belief that Worcester's return to the top two leagues was always likely.

Nonetheless, from a personal perspective, some of their efforts have been undermined by others who have little respect for the current Championship or for the clubs in the lower leagues that are working so hard to earn a spot in Tier 2 based solely on merit. For Worcester Warriors, this seems merely a stepping stone back to the Premiership, and once that objective is reached, which will likely happen sooner rather than later, the route into rugby's elite will be closed off entirely.

Perhaps that's a blinkered view but I don't believe I'm the only person who thinks this.

Hopefully, when the 2025/26 season starts, we can all put aside our current fears and, yes, prejudices (a comment aimed more at myself than at anyone else) and rugby will once again become the real focus. Until then though, the next few weeks won't get any easier. The sooner squads for next season are announced and the current bickering ends, the better.

As a Cov fan, the end of the season can't come quick enough for me, both on and off the field.

---