Director of Rugby Mike Ruddock admitted individual errors had ultimately cost his Worcester Warriors as they crashed to a disappointing 14-3 defeat at blustery Newcastle Falcons in the Guinness Premiership.
Strong winds and very wet playing conditions saw both teams struggle to produce any flowing rugby in an often disjointed encounter.
But it was Newcastle who eventually managed to control the game the better and take advantage of Worcester mistakes to condemn Ruddock’s men to a defeat in the north east.
“I was frustrated by our individual errors – collectively across the board that cost us,” said Ruddock.
“They made less errors than us – which ultimately decided the game – and I thought their half backs played particularly well. Their kicking game was better than us too, they drilled it lower against the wind and found the grass with the wind behind them.
“They had the edge on us in the scrum in the first half, although I thought we came back strong in the second half. In fairness to my pack, on the occasions that we got a foothold we showed some good physicality and some good mauling.
“Our lineout was under a bit of pressure too, with the wind the way it was it cut off our options towards the back, they were able to contest front and middle a lot more than perhaps on normal circumstances.
“They deserved their victory. They scored the one try in the first half when they had a good period of play. After that it became a bit of lottery and the conditions probably dictated the way the game went.
“We had chances and missed a couple of kicks to corners off penalties which would have allowed us to apply a bit more pressure than we did. But overall we can’t complain as we came second best.”
Warriors lost full back Chris Latham to illness for the game, with the Aussie ace having to pull out and replaced by Calum MacRae.
Ruddock added: “I guess losing the left foot of Chris in those conditions would have been a big loss.
“But the way the game went, I’m not sure Chris on his own would not have been enough to win the game for us.
“We struggled to keep a foothold in and around their 22 as often as we wanted to. We had kicks that didn’t find touch from penalties and little errors on penalties against us.
“We were on the wrong end of a penalty count, which you expect away from home, but on a day like this, when accuracy is going to be tested with the wind, we probably just needed to consolidate a bit more then as did.”