DIRECTOR of rugby Dean Ryan says he won’t be making wholesale changes to Worcester Warriors’ squad for next season.

The Sixways outfit are striving for a return to the Premiership and are top of the Greene King IPA Championship table after nine successive wins.

Only one team will be promoted from the Championship after an end-of-season play-off involving the top-four ranked sides.

Powerful Warriors forward Mike Williams and coach Sam Vesty have been linked with a move to higher-graded Leicester Tigers.

Ryan admitted: “We are not frontrunners in the recruitment campaign because there are a lot of big clubs around. As players don’t get the answers they want from their own club, it makes the market more buoyant.

“We are in the market for players who understand what we are trying to do and want to be a part of it.

“We have an opportunity over the next month to see whether we can get a couple of names of people who really engage with what we are trying to do.”

Ryan added: “There will not be wholesale changes like last year but if we get the right people it could really add to what we do.”

Ryan has given his first-team players time off from the club because their next Championship fixture is not until Cornish Pirates visit Sixways on January 10. But Worcester’s second-string are preparing for their home Aviva A-League semi-final against Bath or Exeter next Monday (7.30pm).

Cavaliers won the Northern Conference and will face Bath or Exeter, from the Southern section, who were due to play last night.

“The ‘A’ games have given us a driver in the club and made for fierce competition for places and we want to keep it going,” said Ryan.

“The A-team have got to come back in and work towards their semi-final but the first-team guys have a couple of days off. The boys have worked pretty hard over Christmas and will have a bit of a rest.”