Mike Ruddock challenged Worcester to respond to the pain of the Montpellier defeat by going unbeaten in the rest of the pool stages – after admitting a failure to successfully adapt the game plan had cost Warriors in the Amlin Challenge Cup opener.
Skipper Pat Sanderson and replacement Ryan Powell crossed for tries for Warriors and Willie Walker kicked seven points.
But it was a night of sheer frustration and disappointment for Director of Rugby Ruddock as the injuries mounted.
Warriors have left themselves with a difficult task to now qualify from the pool stages and next face Olympus Rugby XV Madrid in Spain.
However, Ruddock has urged his players to respond in the right fashion to defeat and insisted that progressing from the pool stages was still very much alive.
“We have made it hard for ourselves, what we have got to do now is go out there and win the rest of the games, it’s pretty simple,” he said.
“It’s a tough pool with Connacht who won’t lie down. We have made the job a lot harder. But nothing is impossible, it is just we now have to do it a slightly harder way.
“We never really had control and right from the start we gave away penalties,” he added. “We allowed them to go into half-time not having done much but in the lead. Their tails were up then.
“Before the game we said we needed to start well and get points on the board and test their resolve. If we didn’t play well and weren’t accurate early on then there was the chance that they would get their tails up and hang in the game. That is what they did.
“I have got to give them credit for their tackling. But we weren’t smart. We tried to play too much rugby in the wrong parts of the field and turned the ball over and put pressure on ourselves. The intercept try really typified our night.
“I’m disappointed because my instructions at half-time were that we had to change our game plan and put the ball on the corner.
“We had scored just before half-time with a driving maul, so needed to play more field position with our penalties and play a more basic game.
“I was disappointed we didn’t execute that in the end, although I can understand why we got a bit frantic after that interception try.
“We are not the first side to get surprised by a French team. I remember London Irish last season getting surprised by Bourgoin. But we should never have given them a sniff.”
Ruddock revealed he would take full responsibility in defeat, but also acknowledged the players would feel they failed to adapt as the penalties mounted and Montpellier adopted a strong defensive approach.
He said: “The breakdown was a bit of a mess. We are used to a certain interpretation in the Guinness Premiership and there was evidence of sealing off when going forward and lying over the ball. There was evidence of people not rolling away.
“But we have got to adapt to those interpretations; that is European rugby. What we should have done is recognised that they were fanning out and we needed to use our maul to bring them in a bit. We did that near their line, but didn’t get enough field position.
“When we did get lineouts we elected to go off the top all the time, unless we got into their 22. We have to reflect on that and say that we made mistakes.
“I blame myself for what happened. I take responsibility. I’m not one of those coaches that just puts all the blame on the players.
“But I think the players, if they are honest, will say that they probably didn’t execute exactly what we asked for at half-time.”
Ruddock admitted the second half interception try, as Florian Nicot picked off a Joe Carlisle pass, had ultimately proved costly.
But he insisted the changes to the Warriors line-up had not been a contributing factor in defeat.
“I think Joe will reflect on that pass and wonder if it was the right option, given that we didn’t really have numbers in attack,” said Ruddock.
“It was a major disappointment for us, live on Sky and not delivering the performance we believe we are capable if and, in fairness, we have done in the last five games.
“I don’t think our changes hurt us. If you look at Montpellier they changed their whole team,” he added.
“I sort of had a sneaking feeling that a different motivated team would turn up from perhaps one of the ones that has been playing in the French league and not doing so well. They have a lot of good players and we saw that.
“We knew they would turn up and play some rugby. They turned up and tackled, tackled, tackled. We gifted them a try and ultimately that was the difference.”