Nigel Redman purrs over Worcester Warriors second-half performance (From Worcester News)

Nigel Redman purrs over Worcester Warriors second-half performance

8:00pm Sunday 13th January 2013 in Sport

ASSISTANT head coach Nigel Redman praised a powerful second-half show from the Warriors as they blew away the cobwebs to run out convincing 80-17 winners over Rovigo in the Amlin Challenge Cup.

Worcester wrapped up the bonus point by the half-hour mark at Stadio Mario Battaglini in northern Italy before their hosts fought back with 17 unanswered points.

But a second-half super show saw Warriors score 54 points and run in eight tries to overwhelm their Italian hosts — who they had beaten by a record score at Sixways earlier in the season.

“I thought the second-half, to score eight tries, showed an improvement in our accuracy and intent,” said Redman.

“In the first-half we have to give Rovigo credit. I thought they came at us, in particular in the last quarter of the period. After we scored our fourth they played some decent rugby and scored a very good try.

“They are very passionate about their rugby in this area and it is difficult for us to come here.

“We knew, for the first 20 minutes, many of our players would be blowing out the cobwebs.

“They hadn’t played for a while so it was a terrific opportunity for those players to get out there and play.

“I thought for the first 40 minutes we got better and in the second 40, to score 54 points, was a very good effort.

“It would be wrong to expect the side to run riot,” he added. “It would have been disrespectful to Rovigo and it would have been asking too much of our players.

“One of our support staff asked if I had any messages after 20 minutes and I said no, they just needed to be allowed to play, find their feet and blow out the cobwebs to get the second wind before we would assess it at half-time.

“We did drop it before half-time when Rovigo definitely lifted.

“But in the second-half we were comfortable for most of it.

“They hardly scored any points and we scored over 50.”