Published Sunday 30th Oct 2005.
PHIL Richards will today begin the task of turning Worcester into National One's mean machine.
The newly-installed Worcester Rugby Club fitness coach met up with the Sixways squad today as the players reported back for pre-season training.
And the former Swansea coach will leave them in no doubt that they face a hard month ahead as he sets the emphasis on making the squad a more powerful unit.
Worcester were criticised last season for lacking a physical edge in the two title showdowns with Rotherham.
However, after a few months with Richards, Worcester's director of rugby John Brain believes that reputation will be a thing of the past.
"Phil will leave the players in no doubt of what he wants to see," said Brain. "He has a reputation for producing very physical teams and that is what we want. July will be a hard month for the players.
"It will be hard, physically demanding and intense work. Phil will make a lot of demands of the players, quite stringent physical demands.
"His emphasis will be to make the players more powerful while getting their diets right. I think Phil is aiming to make the squad 10 per cent stronger per man and if he gets that right then, obviously, we will have a much stronger team."
Worcester's free-flowing game demands that the players are fit and nimble so Brain admits it will be a balancing act to get them more muscular but keep the speed.
"There is a lot of running in our game so we can't lose that," he added.
"Phil will make the players leaner and stronger. Rugby can be a game of attrition and we need be a stronger team, stronger in the tackle area and able to dominate physically."
