Boss Mike Ruddock admitted it was great to get ‘a smile back on our faces’ after his Warriors opened the LV= Cup campaign with a 32-6 bonus point victory over Newcastle Falcons.
Ruddock’s men gained some revenge after the league defeat to the same opposition just six days earlier as Academy products Miles Benjamin, Tom Wood, Ollie Frost and Jake Abbott grabbed tries.
Director of Rugby Ruddock was delighted to see his team return to winning ways on home soil as forward power saw three scores from driving mauls.
“It was a good win for us – I was very pleased,” he said. “Our form has dipped of late so it was good to see us getting a smile back on our faces and get a comfortable win.
“It’s quite ironic really, our game plan was trying to get the ball a little wider and not get stuck in too many contact situations, but we win the game through a number of driving mauls.
“Overall that was the result of good play, winning some penalties and being able to bang them in the corner and use that weapon, which is very effective for us.”
Warriors now travel to Scarlets next Saturday in the LV= Cup but Ruddock insisted a bonus point win over Falcons and perfect start to the cup competition would not change his thinking.
“This result does not change anything for us,” he said. “The LV= Cup has its own merits and it’s a very prestigious competition so we want to do really well.
“We have a tough assignment next week down at the Scarlets. It will be a hard game as they have been playing some good rugby.
“I’m going to have a look at my squad and rest a couple of guys ready for the next round of Guinness Premiership games, we have two massive games which are crucial to us now.
“That is not to devalue the competition if I change people. I need to use my resources in a smart way to make sure we can fight on three competitions.
“When you get off to winning start in any competition it does give you an incentive to push on and really do your best. We will try and be very competitive and it’s great that we got off to a winning start.”
Ruddock added the club would now wait on an injury report on Neteni Talei – who limped off in the second half – before knowing his status.
But full back Chris Latham and Ryan Powell were both given the green light after coming off in the second half.
Ruddock said: “Netani had a knock and we will have to wait and see the full report before we know if he is going to be okay for Fiji next week.
“Ryan Powell had a bump on his shoulder, but that was more of a stinger and it recovered. We had a look at him at half-time and it was better so he went out for the second half.
“Chris Latham had the flu last week and he was a little bit tired in the second half. Chris had run his race by then on the back of illness so we took him off. That keeps him in good form ready for the next couple of weeks.”