John Brain believes that a close look at the stats paint a good picture of the progress his Worcester team will take into tough back-to-back Guinness Premiership games against Wasps, starting this weekend.
Warriors travel to Wycombe on Sunday buoyed by the New Year’s Day win over Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens and determined to keep closing the gap at the foot of the league table before welcoming Ian McGeechan’s side to Sixways at the end of the month.
“In the last couple of months, we’ve won five and lost two and lost them by a combined margin of nine points,” he says. “We’re capable of beating anyone. We’ve got to have that mindset.”
The figures back up his view. Since Phil Larder’s arrival as defensive consultant, those seven matches have seen 10 penalties and nine tries conceded – including two “gimmes” against Harlequins, when the opposition visited Worcester’s 22 just four times. At the same time, Warriors have scored 15 tries and landed 14 penalties, giving up a total of 91 points and scoring 139.
Against Saints, Brain blamed “lazy” scrummaging for the home side edging the forward battle, including a five-minute period close to half-time when the scrum was reset six times.
Saints head coach Paul Grayson was unhappy with Rob Debney’s refereeing of the new engagement law during that sequence – especially as the threat subsided when Worcester won a penalty. But the Worcester director of rugby begged to differ.
“They scrummaged very well but, when we focussed, we were okay,” Brain said. “Unfortunately, we went through that period when they started building. We regrouped and managed to get a penalty. That’s nothing to do with the new laws. We have to give them credit, but we perhaps didn’t do things that we normally to, which allowed them to get a nudge on in that area.”
He conceded that he’d have preferred two more league points out of the Christmas period, but praised his players for their attitude, character and commitment, starting with man-of-the-match Dale Rasmussen.
“He’s our defensive captain. He’s one of the best defenders in his position in this league. In that area, he led from the front today. They have a lot of dangerous runners overall. We turned over ball at crucial times and, ultimately, that was the difference. We also scored the only try of the game.”
And he declined to be drawn into speculation about how the table looks.
“Really, we can’t concern ourselves with who is around us,” he said immediately after the Saints victory. “We’ve got to keep winning. We’ve got a lot of character. We’re still very much a team and still together.
“We’d have liked eight points from these games, so we’d have to say that it’s an unsatisfactory return, but it isn’t a disaster for us. We’re still in touch and feel that we have a chance and will keep battling.
“If we defend like we did today, we’re going to be a difficult team to beat. If we get our set phase right, having James Brown and Shane Drahm on the field at the same time means we look a different team. We’ve got to build on that… We won’t even look at the league table until we’re off the bottom.”