Director of Rugby Mike Ruddock praised the Worcester Warriors first half show in a 34-17 defeat to Bath – but admitted a drop in intensity and individual errors cost his side valuable points.
Warriors took a 14-10 half-time lead after blistering scores from Chris Latham and Loki Crichton.
But Bath roared back with three second half tries to take the bonus point win and leave Ruddock’s men empty handed.
“The first half I thought we were fantastic, particularly after we came back from an intercept try,” he said.
“I thought our defence was good and I told the boys at half-time if we kept that intensity in the second half we would win the game, unfortunately we didn’t and we dropped off a couple of tackles.
“Bath are a dangerous team and they looked sharp and play a great brand of rugby, they are difficult to defend against. Having said that I thought our shape was good, it was individual errors that let them in.
“We were right in the game at 17-14 when we missed a tackle and really the game went away from us from there on.
“All we could hope for was a bonus point. We had a penalty towards the end and we should have drilled that into the corner and gone for a lineout and try to salvage something. But we tapped and went and made a mistake.
“The score line flattered them although they were the better team, but for my team it is key errors and mistakes coming back to bite us.
“It’s a shame because we have an honest bunch of players and everyone is working incredibly hard in the set-up. We just need to get those mistakes out of our game, it is frustrating for us and I am sure it is for the supporters when we do see those re-occurring.”
Ruddock also sprung to the defence of young fly half Joe Carlisle after an intercept try for the second successive game at Sixways Stadium.
“Joe is always going to be a long term developer for us, he has got great skills and set-up our first try with a great break,” said Ruddock.
“It is easy to look at the mistake and ask whether he will come through. But I thought he did a lot of good things and got us going forward at times and put some good kicks in.
“The only way he will come through is by having those experiences and learning from them. He is a medium long term prospect for us and I don’t want to give up on him on that basis.”
“We have still got to go out and win some games,” added Ruddock. “We should have picked up a bonus point, that is not trying to hide a lack of ambition from us as we felt we could win the game and at half-time we felt we were in control of the game.
“Bath looked rattled by our defence that had really started to get into them. They were making unforced errors and turnovers and we went into the break in the lead.
“If we could have only, and it is the ‘if’ that every coach is looking for when you are on a losing streak, but if we could have kept the intensity about our game in the first 20 minutes of the second half I felt we could go on and win.”
Warriors now face a trip to Welford Road next weekend to tackle Leicester Tigers and Ruddock admitted full back Latham had suffered an injury as he was forced off in the latter stages.
“Chris had a bad toe, a joint had displaced on him a little bit so he was limping a little bit so we took him off towards the end,” he said.
“Hopefully it is not going to be too bad but it could make him a little bit doubtful for next weekend. But I don’t think it is the sort of injury that will keep him out.
“Ryan Powell took a few knocks but he is a hardy lad and Joe Carlisle took a dead leg. On 55 minutes most of the guys had taken contact so I felt it would be good for us to put two half backs on.
“I was comfortable at that point that we could win the game, but the turning point was the missed tackle and suddenly we were chasing the game when I felt we had done enough until then to be very competitive.”