Worcester news - Garvey and Benjamin on the move?

OUT-of-contract wings Miles Benjamin and Marcel Garvey are both unlikely to be at Worcester next season, according to Warriors chief Richard Hill.

It has been reported that England Saxons ace Benjamin has already agreed to join Leicester Tigers, while Garvey is thought to be weighing up several moves, including offers from France.

Hill said: “I’m not convinced either Miles or Marcel will be at Sixways next season. We put contracts in front of them a while ago and they haven’t signed them, which is an indication they are both keeping their options open and I wouldn’t be surprised if either decide to move on.

“We’ll do what we can to keep them, but when you offer a contract and wait for a month and they still haven’t signed it, you have to have doubts that they will.

“Miles and his agent are saying they haven’t made a decision yet, so I can only accept that, despite press reports saying he has signed elsewhere. I will go with what they are saying to me and I can only hope we can turn him around to stay at the club through some good results and moving up the table.

“Marcel is in a similar position to a number of the players we’d like to keep – we’ve offered him a contract, but he has not signed, so we’ll have to wait and see.

“He’ll have to decide if he wants a cultural change somewhere else or if he’d like to stay here.

“I’d dearly like to keep Marcel, but there are a lot of players who’ve been here for a long time now and sometimes a change is good for them.”

Should the first-choice Aviva Premiership widemen depart, head coach Hill would be left with Josh Drauniniu, Tom Arscott – who is also out of contract in the summer and has yet to be offered a new deal – and Andy Short as his wingers, while full-backs Errie Claassens and Chris Pennell could also play there.

Meanwhile, Ezra Taylor, who today goes under the knife for an operation to repair the patella tendon he snapped two minutes into his Warriors debut, seems to have the unenviable record of the shortest ever club playing career.

Hill said: “It’s a bad injury and takes a lot of rehabbing – it can take up to nine months and players often don’t fully regain their top speed. What we’ve agreed is for him to do his rehab and go back and play some rugby in New Zealand, but he would have to prove his fitness before we could commit ourselves over a longer term. We have no option to re-sign him.”

There are only a few hundred tickets remaining for Saturday’s Aviva Premiership clash with Gloucester at Sixways, which looks set to be sold out for the second consecutive match.