Worcester Warriors bug not to blame – Richard Hill (From Worcester News)

Worcester Warriors bug not to blame – Richard Hill

8:00am Monday 11th February 2013 in Sport By Tom Guest, @tomguestWN #WENsport

WARRIORS boss Richard Hill was left feeling sick to the stomach by Worcester’s 32-9 defeat at his hometown club Bath.

However, the head coach refused to blame the loss on a sickness bug that struck down several players on the morning of the game.

Star fly-half Andy Goode vomited several times during the warm-up and the club’s medics decided he was unfit to play, so Danny Gray was told to start with just 10 minutes’ notice.

Gray was also under the weather and Hill revealed four of his squad had been struggling with the illness.

Head coach Hill said: “The problem struck overnight in the squad and I was aware of it by 8am on the morning of the game. We had four players struggling and some were worse than others. Andy was vomiting in the warm-up. Danny had the same issue and two or three players were struggling.

“Danny had to go out and play but had a superb game. He gave everything he could and one or two had empty tanks by the end.

“Losing your 10 is not helpful but Danny kicked his penalties so it is no excuse for us.”

Worcester’s poor discipline reared its ugly head again at The Rec. Dean Schofield saw yellow in the first-half before Craig Gillies and David Lemi were sin-binned in a frantic finale as Worcester had to play with 13 men.

Meanwhile, Worcester’s Euan Murray played as Scotland thrashed Italy 34-10 in the RBS 6 Nations.