ATTRACTING international players to Sixways is “absolutely priceless” for Worcester Warriors’ “recruitment and retention”, insists high performance director Nick Johnston.

England centre Ben Te’o and Samoa back-row forward Alafoti Fa'osiliva are among the new arrivals at the club this summer.

Scrum-half Francois Hougaard won a bronze medal with the South Africa Sevens squad at the Olympics in Rio and has now been called up to their Rugby Championship squad.

And wing Cooper Vuna, who played two Tests for Australia, is keen to reignite his international career with Tonga, for whom he represented at rugby league.

Vuna, 29, switched allegiance to Tonga over the summer in a bid for Olympic Sevens glory.

Tonga failed to qualify for the competition but Vuna is now available for 15s selection.

Tonga will play Uruguay on November 12 and Italy on November 26.

Vuna said: “It’ll be a different ride but it’s something I’m really looking forward to.

“Tonga have got November Tests in Europe and then there’ll be trips away each summer, so my goal is to play in the 2019 World Cup.”

Johnston believes having international players in the squad “improves the standards” and raises their team-mates’ own “aspirations.”

“We always want to positively encourage our players to play international rugby,” said Johnston.

“We are developing international class and world-class rugby players and when you bring that into your environment, the environment improves.

“The standards go up and people with aspirations go up and their desire to get better goes up.

“We have fully supported this process with Cooper (Vuna) which has been going on for six months.

“He was hoping to go to the Olympics but Tonga didn’t make it.

“Because he had played Test match rugby for Australia but also played rugby league for Tonga, there is a little glitch in the regulation around that.

“As long as Australia Rugby Union didn’t disagree with his aims there wasn’t a problem and they agreed to things. Now Cooper has got to be selected for Tonga.”

Vuna moved to Sixways from Japanese side Toshiba Brave Lupus in March last year, scoring eight tries in nine appearances as Warriors won promotion to the Aviva Premiership.

He finished as Warriors’ top Premiership try-scorer last term with nine and and won two caps for Australia in the summer of 2012 when the Wallabies hosted Wales in a three-match series.

Vuna has also enjoyed a career in rugby league with New Zealand Warriors and Newcastle Knights before a national call-up for Tonga.

Johnston said: “Having international players is great for your recruitment and retention – it’s absolutely priceless.

“The more internationals you have got, they attract others to join them.

“Recruitment is never easy but having internationals make the pathway a little bit easier to get to the players because there is common ground.

“We treat all our players as if they could be international players at some point.

“Our players are programmed into what is expected of an international athlete and that’s how we design the programme on and off the field at Sixways.”