NEW recruit Sam Olver has thanked Worcester Warriors’ coaches for not signing another fly-half this summer.

Several big names have been linked with a move to Warriors, including South African stars Morne Steyn and Elton Jantjies, since the end of last season.

But the Aviva Premiership outfit appear to have failed in their pursuit of a world-class number 10 with chairman Bill Bolsover admitting to “walking away” from a couple of potential signings.

Olver, who arrived from Northampton Saints, will now fight it out with Tom Heathcote, Jamie Shillcock and Ryan Mills for the coveted shirt.

And although conceding he and his fly half-rivals were “not outstanding in any particular area” Olver insisted they were determined to repay director of rugby Gary Gold’s faith in the upcoming campaign.

“My ambition was to come here and play as much as I can,” said the 22-year-old.

“But I knew I had good competition in Jamie, Ryan and Tom.

“To be honest I think we are all pretty similar sorts of players.

“We have all got quite a lot of balance to our game and are not outstanding in any particular area.

“But as a unit we are trying to push each other to get better and I have felt that since I have been here.

“We are all in that age bracket where given the opportunity and a run of games we believe we will perform.

“It shows confidence from the coaches in them not bringing in that fly-half so it is up to us now to perform and almost say thank you to the coaches.

“The coaches have told us to be bold and back ourselves so that’s all we can do.”

Peterborough-born Olver earned a professional contract at Franklin’s Gardens in March 2013 and has helped Northampton Wanderers to three Aviva A League finals in the last four seasons.

He kicked 16 points in Northampton’s victory over Gloucester United to win the 2016-17 title.

But “frustrated” Olver, who had a loan spell at Birmingham Moseley in the 2014-15 campaign, made just 13 first-team appearances and said he was desperate for a new challenge.

“I was down the pecking order,” said Olver who has represented England at under 18 and under 20 level.

“I obviously wasn’t in their vision so I am really excited to be at Warriors as it is a fresh start with new faces and great competition.

“I felt like I needed a new challenge like this and somewhere where I was going to get an opportunity to prove myself so they were the main reasons for coming over here.

“As a professional in what you do you get frustrated if you are not playing the game you love.

“But it is a new chapter and I can’t wait for the season to start.”

Meanwhile, Warriors lock James Scott returns to the England under 18s first XV as they play the final game of their summer development tour in South Africa.

They face South Africa Schools tomorrow at Athlone in their third match of the U19 International Series (1pm BST).

Warriors' Nick Rigby, Beck Cutting and Nick David are on the bench.