Boss: Not Tom’s fault (From Worcester News)

Boss: Not Tom’s fault

7:30pm Sunday 7th March 2010 in

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WARRIORS boss Mike Ruddock refused to blame Tom Wood for another costly error as Worcester were edged out by Harlequins at The Stoop.

The Northampton-bound back-rower conceded a penalty in the dying minutes for a clumsy high tackle and Rory Clegg knocked over the long-range effort to seal a 14-11 success.

Ruddock said: “We have no complaints about the high tackle at the end. Clegg knocked over a monster penalty kick — those are the sort of things we need to get out of our game. Otherwise our game is in good shape.

“Tom just slid off the tackle, in fairness he had a sore shoulder and I was just about to replace him. He miss-timed it and probably lacked a bit of strength in the shoulder and went high because of it.”

The Sixways chief was also left to rue a bad day at the office for his pack, who have been on song in recent weeks.

He added: “Last week against Newcastle we were dominant in the scrum, but that moment went against us at Quins.

“It was a crucial area and that is the fine line between being competitive, trying to create that dominant scrum we had against the Falcons, to perhaps not giving the referee what he wants and being over competitive. That is the fine margins we are working in.”

On the decision to kick a penalty to the corner late on when trailing by three points, Ruddock said: “It was going to be a tricky kick for Matthew (Jones) on the five-metre line.

“The boys backed the scrum, as it has been pretty dominant over the last few games, and I can see the reason why they did that.

“Fair play to the players for going for the win and backing the systems and the scrum, we have been dominant in the last few weeks so I have no problem with that. It was a tough kick for Matthew to nail.”

He added: “It has been a tough block of four games, but we have four home game to come and the two teams closest to us in the league, everything is in our own hands.”