The Champ Champions!!

From the Ashes

Worcester Warriors

Champions of The Champ

There are sporting stories that feel scripted. Then there are stories so improbable, so gloriously absurd, that no scriptwriter would dare submit them for fear of being laughed out of the room.

And then there is Worcester Warriors.

Twelve months ago there was no squad. No momentum. No certainty. No guarantee that one of English rugby's most beloved clubs could ever truly recover from the devastation that engulfed Sixways.

Today?

Worcester Warriors are champions of The Champ.

Not contenders. Not surprise package. Champions.

In their very first season back in professional rugby, a club rebuilt from the ground up has climbed from nothing to the summit of English rugby's second tier, completing one of the most extraordinary comeback stories the sport has witnessed. 

And they did it the hard way.

Of course they did.

The Road Nobody Saw Coming

For much of the season Worcester were not title favourites.

They weren't even playoff certainties.

The Warriors spent the campaign scrapping, battling and grinding their way into the top four. Their place in the playoffs was only secured at the death of the regular season. They finished fourth, with 15 wins and 11 defeats, behind sides who had looked stronger, deeper and more established throughout the year. 

The smart money was elsewhere.

The predictions were elsewhere.

The trophy was supposedly destined for somebody else.

What followed was rugby's version of armed robbery.

Worcester marched into the playoffs and systematically knocked over teams that had beaten them home and away during the regular campaign.

The teams that had spent months proving themselves.

The teams everyone expected to prevail.

The teams who discovered, too late, that playoff rugby is not played on spreadsheets.

It is played on heart.

And nobody had more heart than Worcester Warriors.

Slaying The Giant

Every great sporting fairytale needs a dragon.

Worcester's dragon wore green and white.

Ealing Trailfinders had been utterly dominant.

Twenty-six games.

Twenty-six victories.

Machine-like.

The most dominant regular season in Championship history.

They had beaten Worcester at Sixways. They had beaten Worcester in London. They had done everything asked of them and arrived at the playoffs seemingly unstoppable. 

Then they met a Warriors side that refused to read the script.

In one of the greatest upsets English rugby's second tier has ever seen, Worcester travelled to Trailfinders Sports Ground and tore up the form book.

Hugh Bokenham struck early.

Siva Naulago crossed twice.

Will Reed kept the pressure on.

Then came the moment that will live forever in Warriors folklore.

Ealing thought they had won it.

One minute remained.

The unbeaten juggernaut was seconds from extending its perfect record.

Then Worcester found one final attack.

One final surge.

One final act of defiance.

Jake Garside raced away for the winning try with the final play of the match.

Ealing's record became 26 wins and one defeat.

The only defeat that mattered. 

Finishing The Job

Fairytales are wonderful.

Championships require something more.

They require a team capable of backing up the impossible.

One week after stunning Ealing, Worcester travelled to face Bedford Blues in the final and produced another display of grit, power and composure.

Tries from Hugh Bokenham, Tim Anstee, Will Reed and Siva Naulago secured a 27-14 victory.

Another favourite beaten.

Another mountain climbed.

Another chapter written.

The Warriors had done it.

Champions.

Matt Everard's Masterpiece

Every great team reflects its coach.

What Matt Everard achieved this season borders on miraculous.

When Everard arrived, there was no established squad waiting for him. No settled combinations. No existing culture.

He had to build everything.

The result was a group that became far greater than the sum of its parts.

Players bought into the cause.

The club became a family.

The Warriors developed a spirit that repeatedly carried them beyond what logic suggested was possible.

After the playoff triumphs, Everard described the season as "unique and special" and later called winning the title "as special as it gets." It is difficult to argue with either assessment. 

This was coaching of the highest order.

Captain Fantastic

If Matt Everard built the culture, club captain and Worcester icon Matt Kvesic embodied it.

Nobody symbolises Worcester Warriors more completely.

A hometown hero returning once again to the club he loves, Kvesic became the heartbeat of the side.

His leadership was visible everywhere.

At the breakdown.

In defence.

In the dressing room.

In the standards demanded every single week.

When Worcester needed somebody to represent the values of the club, Kvesic was there.

When they needed belief, he supplied it.

When they needed leadership, he delivered it.

The image of Kvesic lifting silverware at the end of this remarkable journey feels fitting beyond words.

The Men Who Made It Happen

Championships are never won by one man.

This Warriors side was packed with performers.

Billy Twelvetrees brought experience, control and class.

Siva Naulago delivered devastating finishing power when it mattered most.

Jake Garside produced the try that will be replayed for generations.

Hugh Bokenham consistently led from the front.

Tim Anstee carried relentlessly.

Will Reed repeatedly delivered under pressure.

The likes of Hallam Chapman, Thabo NDimande, Josh Bassett, Fraser Balmain, Louis Brown, Speedy Gonzalez and countless others all contributed to a season built on collective effort rather than individual glory.

This was a squad in the truest sense of the word.

The Perfect Farewell

Every championship-winning team needs its veterans.

Worcester had two of the very best.

We have Lloyd Williams

For Lloyd Williams and Matt Rogerson, this remarkable season was not merely the rebirth of a rugby club. It was the final chapter of two outstanding professional careers that deserved the happiest of endings.

Williams arrived at Sixways carrying a wealth of experience few players in The Champ could match. A Welsh international with 32 caps, a veteran of two Rugby World Cups and a player who spent thirteen years at Cardiff, he brought calmness, intelligence and leadership to a brand-new squad finding its feet. Throughout the season, his influence stretched far beyond his performances at scrum-half. He became one of the architects of the culture Matt Everard was building, helping turn a collection of recruits into a genuine team. 

There was a beautiful irony in Williams ending his career by helping Worcester defeat the very club he had left the previous summer. Having won titles with Ealing Trailfinders, he returned one final time to haunt his former side in the greatest upset of the season before lifting silverware himself a week later. Not many players get to choose the final line of their rugby story. Lloyd Williams wrote his in gold. 

Then there is Matt Rogerson.

If Williams provided wisdom, Rogerson embodied everything this new Worcester project wanted to be.

A warrior in every sense of the word.

Having captained London Irish through promotion to the Premiership and European rugby before starring for Leicester Tigers, Rogerson arrived at Sixways with a reputation as one of the game's outstanding leaders. Everard made him one of his first recruitment targets for good reason. Teammates followed him. Coaches trusted him. Standards rose around him. 

In announcing his retirement, Everard described Rogerson as "a brilliant leader" and someone who "adds to people". Those words perfectly capture his contribution. Injuries may have limited his appearances during the campaign, but his influence on the culture of this squad was impossible to measure. He helped lay the foundations upon which this extraordinary title-winning season was built. 

And how fitting that both men should walk away together.

One a Welsh international and World Cup veteran.

One a Premiership captain and consummate professional.

Both arriving at a club beginning again from scratch.

Both helping guide it through its first season back.

Both ending their careers not with farewells, but with celebrations.

Not with regrets, but with medals.

Not with tears, but with a trophy held aloft as champions.

For Lloyd Williams and Matt Rogerson, there could have been no finer ending.

And for Worcester Warriors, there could have been no finer men to help lead them home.

It's a genuinely storybook element of the season: two hugely respected senior professionals, both announcing retirement during the playoff run, then finishing their careers as champions in Worcester's first season back from the wilderness.

Chris Holland's Vision

None of it happens without leadership off the field.

Chairman Chris Holland deserves enormous credit for bringing Worcester Warriors back to life.

At a time when many wondered whether elite rugby would ever return to Sixways, Holland backed the club's revival and provided the platform upon which everything else could be built. 

Others talked about Worcester's past.

Holland invested in Worcester's future.

The result is silverware.

The result is hope.

The result is a club restored to relevance and once again looking forward rather than back.

"The Warriors Faithful"

But above all else, this title belongs to the supporters.

The Warriors Faithful.

The people who never stopped believing.

The people who endured the darkest days.

The people who watched their club disappear.

The people who wondered if Sixways would ever roar again.

And then made sure it did.

Week after week, Worcester produced crowds that most clubs in the division could only dream about, averaging more than 7,000 supporters and creating atmospheres that reminded everyone exactly why this club matters. The return of packed stands at Sixways became one of the stories of the season. 

Home and away they travelled.

Home and away they sang.

Home and away they believed.

The scenes after the victory over Ealing.

The noise at Sixways throughout the season.

The celebrations at the final whistle in Bedford.

They were not passengers.

They were participants.

This championship was built as much in the stands as it was on the pitch.

A Season For The Ages

Years from now, supporters will talk about this season with the kind of reverence normally reserved for sporting mythology.

They will remember the uncertainty.

They will remember sneaking into the playoffs.

They will remember the impossible win over unbeaten Ealing.

They will remember Bedford.

They will remember Everard.

They will remember Kvesic.

They will remember Garside's try.

Most of all, they will remember how it felt.

Because Worcester Warriors did not merely win The Champ.

They reminded everyone what sport is supposed to be.

Hope over expectation.

Belief over logic.

Community over circumstance.

A club that had nothing.

A team that nobody fancied.

A season nobody could have predicted.

And now

Forever

***** Champions *****

The Worcester Warriors are back. And English rugby is infinitely better for it.