WORCESTER Warriors’ players are trying to book a seat on the plane for a prestigious pre-season friendly at French giants Clermont Auvergne this summer.

High performance director Nick Johnston revealed only a "certain number" of Warriors will be travelling with the squad for the match.

The date for the fixture against the star-studded French Top 14 outfit has not yet been confirmed.

However, Warriors will have at least three away warm-up matches before their Aviva Premiership campaign with trips to Jersey (August 20) and Munster (August 26).

Warriors are arranging away friendlies because work on their new artificial pitch at Sixways will not be completed until the middle of August.

Head coach Carl Hogg will lead Warriors following the shock departure of director of rugby Dean Ryan after three years at the helm.

Johnston said: “We are playing Clermont in around five weeks time so if that doesn’t get the players going then I don’t know what will.

“We are looking forward to it and they are all trying to earn a place for it.

"We have set a target-based challenge for them.

"There will only be a certain number of people we are taking so the players’ challenge is to get on the plane."

Johnston added: "There’s won’t be drastic change this season because there doesn’t need to be.

"We have only brought in five players so that helps with the continuity and helps Carl and his coaching team so they can move through game development a lot quicker.

"The squad have done four weeks of four sessions a day. They have worked pretty hard.

"The players have progressed faster than we wanted so we are in a good place physically and mentally and the coaches have been working hard with them."