Delighted boss Mike Ruddock praised the team spirit of his Worcester Warriors as they dug deep to stop a strong Sale second half comeback and claim a second Guinness Premiership win of the season at Sixways Stadium.
Wing stars Marcel Garvey and Miles Benjamin scored for Worcester and the valuable boot of Willie Walker, who amassed 14 points, ensured Ruddock’s men tasted success.
Sale fought hard for a losing bonus point and enjoyed a long period of territory in the second period and as hit the Worcester line with all they could.
But Warriors refused to buckle and Ruddock was proud of the way his team continued to battle for every ball in energy sapping conditions and broke the run of seven games in this fixture when the away team had won.
“It was nice to change the trend of the away team winning in this series of matches and I felt we deserved it,” said the Director of Rugby.
“We made a great start with the try from Marcel. We let Sale back in the game with a missed lineout that got them back in the game, we are annoyed about that.
“But overall first half we were the better team by far and we made a great start to the second half with a great try by Miles Benjamin, he took his opportunity really well.
“It was great to see us getting the ball wider and being clinical in attack, something we have been focussed on.
“It was all set up for us to push on and really try to nail them down and finish them off. In fairness to Sale, though, they wouldn’t lie down and what is a concern is the amount of penalties we gave away in the second half.
“We allowed ourselves to be under pressure to a very good Sale team. If we hadn’t tackled the way we did and showed the sort of team spirit we showed they could have breached our line a few more times.
“I’m pleased by our enthusiasm to keep defending and not to lose the lead we had built up.”
Mathew Tait scored a late try for Sale to give them hope but Worcester were not to be denied and Ruddock was pleased with the way his side coped in defence.
“They tried to move us around on a sunny day on hard ground, perhaps they wanted to get at our tight five because we have some big lads there,” he added.
“But we defended really well and limited their opportunities to move us around. Even when they did I felt we were good structurally in defence and we coped with them well.
“Sides will try and move us around, but having said we showed some great offloading by the forwards before Miles Benjamin went in the corner.”