8:40am Friday 5th March 2010
By Tom Guest
MIKE Ruddock admits it has been difficult to attract top players to Sixways during his tenure as director of rugby.
However, the Warriors chief believes signing the likes of Rico Gear and Chris Latham is gradually convincing a better calibre of player that they could achieve their ambitions with Worcester.
The Welshman feels the tide is finally turning and he is delighted with how his recruitment for next season is going.
Warriors have already announced that Andy Goode, Luke Rooney, Neil Best, Adam Balding and Bruce Douglas will be joining them next season and there are more to come.
Ruddock said: “We have been criticised over the last few years for not recruiting as well as people would like. There have been reasons for that.
“Firstly, I like to give everyone in my squad the chance to perform before we think about making changes, that is the fair and proper thing to do.
“Secondly, it has been more difficult to get players to come to the club in past, because of where we have been in the table. They would rather go to the top half.
“That is one of the reasons why I have had to bring through so many academy boys, even though I am a fan of doing that anyway.
“We have gone overseas to sign some big names like Chris and Rico to help those youngsters come through and give us balance on top of the existing players we had.
“What that did was put us on the map globally, it showed an intent by us to be successful and showed our ambition.”
He added: “Signing guys like Latho and Rico has made people like Andy Goode, Bruce Douglas and Luke Rooney look at us as a team that really wants to achieve something.
“We have demonstrated that and we continue to do so with the signings we are making at the moment with people like Neil Best. That fact that we have signed a Latham and Gear has helped us get those guys here.
“There is a plan and a progression that has to take place to allow us to get to where we want to go, it would be great if it could happen overnight.
“We have got credibility in the marketplace at the moment, in terms of us as a club and the sort of rugby we want to play, the people we have here and the coaching structure.
“Unfortunately, if one or two of our senior guys who have been great servants, have to move on then, on one hand, that is quite sad but, on the other, we do need to move things on in key moments in our development.
“This is a year when we need to make a few changes.”
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