Boss Hill demands more from his players (From Worcester News)

Boss Hill demands more from his players

5:50pm Sunday 29th August 2010 in

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HARD task-master Richard Hill insists his Worcester Warriors players must up their game if they are to meet his high standards.

The Sixways head coach watched on as Warriors ran out convincing 48-3 winners against Birmingham and Solihull on the first day of the Championship.

However, he was in no mood for resting on his laurels after the match and was quick to point out his side’s failings.

He said: “The first-up tackling has got to be firmer in the front line — we allowed them to make a few line-breaks and get round us.

“It took some desperate defence right on our line just to keep them out. I’m pleased they didn’t score a try because that was one of our objectives, but they did make too much ground.

“Against teams like Birmingham, we have to keep the ball for six, seven, eight phases. In the Premiership you can keep the ball for 15 phases and defences are still organised but, in the Championship, in my experience, defences can stay organised for three or four phases, but after that they become disjointed.

“They don’t have the time we have, as a full-time, professional club, to really organise their defence — that’s when the gaps will appear.

“In the second-half I was disappointed that we made a few silly errors and lost the ball after two or three phases. Then it was another scrum, it just slowed the whole thing down. To really put sides under pressure we have got to string the phases together, even if they go down injured or with cramp the ball is still in play.”

During the game Worcester lost both Neil Best and Jake Abbott to the sin bin and Hill had contrasting views of both yellow cards.

He said: “The second one to Neil I will justify because they were probably going to score a try. Call it a professional foul, but the side knew after my talk at half-time that Birmingham were not to score a try.

“Neil took one for the team and slowed that ball down. It was illegal and quite rightly got a yellow card, but it did stop us from conceding a try so it was the lesser of two evils.

“He either gets a yellow card or the side has to face me at the end of the game having conceded a try. I think he felt the best option was to sacrifice himself and take a few minutes in the sin bin.

“Jake will learn from his yellow card. He was being pulled and he reacted. You can’t take justice into your own hands.

“He is a young lad who will learn, he apologised when he came off but, other than that, he had a great game.”