Ryan exit was hisdecision – O’TooleTHE departure of WorcesterWarriors director of rugby DeanRyan was “driven from his side”,according to chief executive JimO’Toole.

And O’Toole insisted the situ-ation with Ryan had “escalatedsomewhat this week” when theformer England player made it“crystal clear” he no longer want-ed to remain at Sixways.

O’Toole denied there had beenany bust-up between the boardand Ryan, and admitted the50-year-old had his own reasonsfor leaving.

However, O’Toole also pointedout Ryan would not be joininganother Aviva Premiership club,despite reports linking him withthe vacant coaching role at Bath.

“I want to make it clear to allour supporters and stakehold-ers that the decision for Dean todepart was driven from his side,”said O’Toole.

“He made it very clear to us overthe last few weeks he no longerwanted to be a day-to-day directorof rugby at a Premiership club.

“We issued a statement lastweek in response to speculationabout a potential move to anotherclub and reiterated he was underlong-term contract at the club,which he was.

“We also batted off some con-cerns raised in national mediaabout the level of financial invest-ment in this club and this busi-ness by our owners.

“We made fairly strong state-ments about our financial healthand the amount of investmentthat has gone into the rugby oper-ation this year, which we felt wasthe right thing to do at the timebecause there was some concernamong our supporters.

“The situation with Dean esca-lated somewhat this week whenat a board meeting on Tuesday

afternoon he made it crystal clearhe no longer wished to be directorof rugby at this club and soughtto be released from his contract.

“We debated the issue long andhard and were resistant to theidea simply because we were ab-solutely delighted with the job hewas doing and had done over thelast three years.”

Ryan joined Warriors in May2013 and led them to relegationfrom the Premiership in his firstseason at the helm.

However, Warriors secured pro-motion from the Championshipback to the top tier at the first at-tempt and to glory in the Britishand Irish Cup.

Warriors achieved a club-re-cord four successive league wins

last term and a 10th-placed finishin the Premiership.

O’Toole admitted: “The clubare in excellent condition on andoff the pitch. We were more thanpleased with last season’s perfor-mance in the Premiership andwe saw no reason why he (Ryan)would not continue in the role aswe go in to the new campaign.

“The longer the board meetingwent on, it was clear we were notgoing to be able to dissuade Ryanfrom his position.

“After reflection and internaldiscussion, we reluctantly decid-ed his departure was the only so-lution for the longer-term stabil-ity of our club and for the careerdevelopment of the 60 young menwho make up our rugby squad.”

Ryan, who was touted as a possi-ble England coach in the autumn,left Warriors on Wednesday night.

“He leaves with disappointmentbut with our best wishes for what-ever his next venture might bebut he will not be moving to an-other Premiership rugby club,”said O’Toole.

“The facts behind the matterare he (Ryan) no longer wantedto be a full-time director of rugbyand he no longer wanted to be ourfull-time DoR.”

DEPARTURE: Dean Ryan decided the time was right for him to leave Worcester Warriors

Warriors have budget to boost squadTHERE is still room in WorcesterWarriors’ budget to recruit play-ers for the new season, confirmedchief executive Jim O’Toole.

Head coach Carl Hogg says War-riors “will travel with the groupwe have got” but the club’s boardhave pledged to increase the rug-by budget by 25 per cent.

Supporters have been urgingthe club to boost their ranks at

fly-half with Wales and Bath starRhys Priestland among the namesmooted by fans.

O’Toole said: “This has been adifficult situation but we are con-vinced we are going in the rightdirection with this managementteam, the squad and our develop-ments and investments off thepitch.

“We have been more than happy

with the progress along our long-term business plan.

“There has been a lot of talkabout five-year plans but we don’thave a five-year plan — we have along-term business plan to makethis a top-six Premiership teamand a club challenging initiallyto get into the European Champi-ons Cup and subsequently to be acompetitive team in that.

“The rugby department will seea 25 per cent uplift in the rugbyspend. There’s no shortage ofmoney coming in.

“Nobody said we are going toachieve the top six this season.Our goal is to become a top-sixclub. We want to move in a north-erly direction at a pace that re-flects the quality of the squad wehave at any given time.”

Pitch ‘notto blame’THE installation of anartificial playing surface atSixways was not responsiblefor Dean Ryan’s decisionto quit the club, insistsWarriors chief executive JimO’Toole.

The outspoken formerEngland number eightlabelled the new pitch asa “commercial decision”earlier this year, whenWarriors unveiled plans toremove their grass surface.

O’Toole believes theartificial pitch can hostconcerts and non-rugbyactivities, and will bring insignificant amounts of cashfor Warriors.

Supporters on social mediahave claimed the artificialpitch, currently beinginstalled at the ground andwhich won’t be finished untilAugust, could have drivenRyan over the edge.

However, Warriors’ highperformance director NickJohnston carried out a lot ofresearch into the new facilityand its benefits.

“The rugby departmentunder Nick’s responsibilityconducted an extremelythorough due diligenceexercise on the pitch,” saidO’Toole.

“We would not for onesecond put a pitch oranything else into thisfacility that would haveany negative impact on ourplayers. The science appliedto our due diligence wascomprehensive.

“We went on a trip to Italyto see the pitches in action.

“I don’t think the pitch wasthe final straw for Dean buthe has his reasons. I can onlydeal with facts and he nolonger wanted to be here on afull-time basis.”

O’Toole, who worked atLondon Irish before arrivingat Sixways two years ago,insisted there had not beena breakdown in his workingrelationship with Ryan.

“The development ofthis issue has been in thepost-season window,” saidO’Toole. “There’s been nospecific clash.

“We had a very productiverelationship that gotsparky at times, which isquite normal in any sportsenvironment, but it wasa productive and adultrelationship.

“The board were 100 percent behind him [Ryan], theowners were 100 per centbehind him and I was 100 percent behind him.

“There was no doubt thathe had our complete andutter support. He was ourdirector of rugby and haddone an excellent job againstour objectives as a business.”

By IanMorgan

CONTACT01905 742273imo@worcesternews.co.uk

Sport worcesternews.co.uk/sport

52 Friday July 1, 2016

Warriors