Mike Ruddock admitted it was mission accomplished for Worcester’s Spanish trip as they secured a commanding 38-5 victory over Olympus Rugby XV Madrid – and hailed the travelling support who descended on the capital to cheer on his men.
Alex Grove and Miles Benjamin both grabbed a brace of tries as Warriors stormed ahead in the first half in sapping conditions in Spain.
Madrid battled hard in the second half, but Warriors were always in control in front of an army of fans with over 200 making the trip to lend their vocal support.
“It was a fantastic first half and a great ten minutes in the second half. We score four tries in the first half and another in the second,” said Ruddock.
“The yellow card to Chris Fortey disrupted our flow and put us on the back foot, in fairness to Madrid they picked their game up then and applied some pressure.
“A succession of penalties forced us to spend most of the second half in our half, I also made some substitutions because I wanted to look at some more guys and different combinations.
“Territorially we lost out last 20 minutes and it would have been nice to hit 40 or 50 points.
“But in the end we got exactly what we wanted, which was a bonus point victory away from home with a lot of youngsters involved as well. I thought it was a professional display and I’m very pleased.
“It was brilliant to see the fans out here in such numbers,” he added. “We have great support and I was really pleased to see them, it was like playing at Sixways.
“I was pleased the sunshine came out for them, I think there was a bar quite close for most supporters to gain some refreshments when the sun came out. And it was great to see so many youngsters playing so well, the future looks bright.”
Ruddock was also full of praise for young fly half George Crook who kicked 13 points on his first full start for the club.
He said: “George was outstanding and ran the back line very well first half. He got the ball wide when we needed to go and organised us with our kicking game.
“His kicking for goal was superb and he hit some great conversions from the touch line. He looked assured and confident and composed. He put a great display in,.
“I took him off so I could get Chris Pennell a run. I also wanted to see Calum MacRae have a run at ten, if he is going to feature in our panel it might be at 10, 12, 13 and 15. It is key he gets some game time at ten.
“It was great to see Calum and Chris get on the field and do so well after time out injured. It was also great to see youngsters like George Crook doing so well at the figure head of the team.”
Despite a big win, Ruddock admitted time to celebrate was limited has thoughts had now very much switched to Harlequins on home soil next Saturday.
“We will immediately went to watch Harlequins play on Sky Sports and the focus switches to them. We have sent someone to watch them and we will watch the tapes next week,” he added.
“Our thoughts are on the Guinness Premiership, the moment this game ended we look at them.
“We will enjoy the moment in Spain and we’re delighted the fans enjoyed it because they were fantastic, to turn out in such huge numbers to support the Warriors. “But we have got to put our celebration to one side and watch what Harlequins are doing.”