Ealing defeat was Worcester Warriors' 'best showing yet'

Warriors came close but fell just one point short of being the first side not to lose to Ealing this season, in their second successive one-point loss.

Will Reed's penalty kick in the final minutes provided the opportunity to clinch victory at the last but it agonisingly struck the post, seeing Warriors fall 34-33 on the road.

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"I feel incredibly proud of the lad's efforts," said Everard after the final whistle. "I thought it was probably our performance of the season, if I’m honest, so far.

"We just keep building from that and keep improving like the lads have done week-to-week.

"I think we’re in a good spot, I do think we are in a good spot.

"Ealing are a brilliant team aren’t they? They’re a Premiership outfit with Premiership resource, for us to push them that close, we should be really, really proud. Really proud."

Everard credited the performance of his fly-half, feeling the difference between victory and defeat shouldn't have rested on his shoulders with the late kick.

"It never should come down to your kicker. It shouldn’t do," he said. "You don’t win games because of your goal kicker.

"You maybe build scores and things like that but it should never come down to a kick at the end of a game to win it, and I thought Will Reed was and has been superb throughout.

"You saw how upset he was at the end and I will make sure I take that away from him because he was brilliant."

Coming into this one off the back of successive defeats to Bedford Blues and Chinnor, which were largely credited to set piece failings, Everard had pledged in the week that the side's set piece woes would be "put to bed" against Ealing.

A much improved performance in both the scrum and the line-out left Everard feeling that there was a big improvement, though still admitting his side are not quite where they want to be.

"I thought it was a big improvement, I definitely think it was a big improvement," he said. "I think we are probably not at the point where we want to be around exerting consistent dominance on the opposition but it was definitely a big, big improvement to the last couple of weeks.

"(We worked on) a few technical bits that we tweaked from last week. Made it probably a bit simpler, made some bits a bit simpler and a few tiny little technical tweaks.

"We have got a good couple of weeks now to highlight a few areas of the game that we really want to double down on and keep improving and set piece will be at the forefront of that."

On what he will tell his players after the game, the coach added: "I’m going to say I’m really proud, really proud.

"Proud of Reedy for stepping up and taking that kick and it doesn’t come down to him.

"I will say we improved our set piece but we’re not quite where we want to be yet, we will keep going with that."