A one-word Steve Diamond tweet has fired-up the Worcester fans

Steve Diamond has garnered much love and sympathy for his Worcester players with a one-word tweet posted on Tuesday. Despite widespread concern that the Warriors will fall into administration over an unpaid tax bill, the director of rugby’s squad is continuing preparations for the new Gallagher Premiership campaign that begins with a September 10 fixture at London Irish. 

Diamond took over as the Worcester director this summer from Alan Solomons having initially joined the club last November as its lead rugby consultant, a role that was soon upgraded to first-team boss following the departure of head coach Jonathan Thomas eight weeks later. 

Worcester went on to finish the season by winning the Premiership Rugby Cup final versus London Irish while a last-day Premiership win over Bath lifted them off the bottom of the 13-team table and into eleventh, generating grounds for optimism that the upcoming 2022/23 campaign would be one witnessing huge improvements on the pitch in terms of consistency. 

However, those ambitions have been clouded by the controversy that has enveloped Worcester since the HMRC issued a winding-up petition last week against the club over a tax debut reputed to be in excess of £6million. 

There has been a huge outpouring of support for players and staff since then, goodwill added to by the release of a statement by the family of the late Cecil Duckworth, the investor who got Worcester into the Premiership for the first time in 2004 and build up the facilities at Sixways before the club was taken over by current owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham. 

“The Duckworth family are very saddened by the recent news at Worcester Warriors,” read that statement. “Cecil and others spent many years building up the rugby club and know he would be devastated by the events which are unfolding. Our thoughts are with the staff and players.” 

This support was further inflamed by a Tuesday afternoon tweet from Diamond. Publishing a picture that showed the Worcester squad in an on-pitch circle at training at Sixways, Diamond wrote: “Together!" His one-word tweet quickly grabbed the imagination as it was soon commented on nearly 40 times, retweeted 150 times and liked by just short of 1,000 people. 

Rugby fan Rhys Smith summed up the mood of the people who reacted to the tweet, replying: “Dimes - Heartfelt thanks for staying and fighting for our club. Another hero for Worcester.”

Diamond isn’t usually found on Twitter as his brief message on August 23 was only the second time he had posted a tweet since April 2021. His only other post in 16 months was a bizarre picture of Dean Schofield, the ex-England forward who played for Sale, Toulon and Worcester, locked in a dog crate.