'I don't think any team's done this': Matt Kvesic

Emotional Worcester Warriors captain Matt Kvesic has spoken of his pride in leading the reborn club to the Champ Rugby title in their first season back in business.

The Warriors beat hosts Bedford 27-14 after a dominant second half performance at a packed Goldington Road, completing a remarkable return to English rugby.

“I am just really proud of the group, really proud of the boys. We always knew it would be a tough place to come to and the last two games against Bedford hadn’t gone to plan and they’ve been brilliant all year,” the former England flanker told BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester post-match.

“We knew their threats, they love to play ball in hand, they are the best team in the league at it, and we knew we had to be physical when we got the opportunity and I thought we did that, particularly in the second half.

“Against the wind, up the hill, the sun in our eyes, a tough place with the slope and stuff like that, the way we managed that game in the second half with the half backs, I thought the forwards’ physicality was oustanding, and the bench had a massive impact.”

Having folded in September 2022, Worcester rose again under new ownership, and in April 2025, the RFU decreed that they would be readmitted to the Champ, pending all rugby debts being settled, which is when the hard work of building a squad from scratch began.

Head coach Matt Everard recognised that the leadership and experience of figures like Kvesic, who started life as a Warrior before playing PREM Rugby for Gloucester and Exeter, would be key to uniting a hastily formed group of players with four months and counting until the season started.

Making Kvesic captain was an inspired choice, while the once-retired Billy Twelvetrees showed what a big-game performer he still is, at 37 years of age, by producing a Player of the Match performance in the final.

“What a year it’s been, it’s been a pretty mental year, it’s not even been a year since we got together so, yeah, I am a little bit lost for words and a bit emotional,” added Kvesic.

“I think the whole story about the uniqueness of what’s happened here, the way we have come back together, I am probably wrong but I don’t think any team has done this – come back to professional rugby and won the league the way we have.”

Having finished fourth in the regular season, the Warriors battled past Chinnor 35-29 in the quarter-finals before ending Ealing’s unbeaten campaign with a last-second Jake Garside try in the semi-finals to set up the Bedford clash.

Reaching the final, let alone winning it, seemed an unlikely outcome when a run of one win in five games at the end of the regular season culminated in a 64-28 hiding by Coventry.

“As the season showed, there were ups and downs along the way and we have learnt and got better as a group,” said Kvesic.

“Obviously we made it hard for ourselves with an extra game, we had to play the semi and final away. But we kind of relished that challenge and we spoke six weeks ago about believing we could go and do it.

“We kind of had a rocky patch, and we lost few going into those quarters and it was tough; the game against Coventry was a bit tough, but we always had the belief that knockout rugby was going to be good for us.

“I suppose you don’t need to peak before Christmas, I feel like that we started to do that over the last few games, and it looked like we came good at crunch times.

“Today, we dug in; we talked about being hard to beat and we were definitely that today.”