Diamond delight after fightback

STEVE Diamond hailed his Worcester side’s resolve having been on the ropes at the break.

“We had a chat at halftime about the psychology of what we’d do in the second half and it worked,” he said. “They delivered a great second half performance.

“There are a lot of good lads leaving. I have to cut the squad accordingly and sometimes I have to make some hard decisions.”

On the departing Alan Solomons, Diamond added: “Alan’s a great rugby guy, he’s been a mentor for a long time.

He’s a direct, straight honest guy and he wanted someone to replace him with those similar values.”

Hat-trick full-back Jamie Shillcock said: “Dimes said before the game that while winning the Premiership Cup is brilliant, it’s the Premiership that we do each week and we needed to give everyone a good send off.

“We know we can score points but it’s about having defensive stability and we did that in the second half. It’s got to be the goal for us to kick on now and finish up the table next season.”