Boss Mike Ruddock has called on his Worcester Warriors to rediscover an accurate edge when they travel to Connacht Rugby in the Amlin Challenge Cup on Friday night (kick-off 7pm).
Warriors suffered a 26-21 defeat to the Magners League side at Sixways last Saturday to dent European qualification hopes.
Director of Rugby Ruddock has indicated he will change the look of his team for the clash, with one eye on the ‘massive’ set of forthcoming Guinness Premiership games.
But he admits whoever takes to the pitch for Warriors at the Galway Sportsground will be under orders to produce an accurate display after the bitter disappointment of less than seven days earlier.
“I was always planning to change the team – regardless of our performance or result in the first game with Connacht,” he said.
“We’ve got a massive block of three huge Guinness Premiership games coming up. We start with Northampton on Boxing Day, then Gloucester away and London Irish at Sixways. That will dictate the tone of our second half of the season.
“We need to be picking up points in those games and they are three tough fixtures. All along we planned to freshen guys up for that. It is going to be very physical and tough so we planned to change things.
“Our accuracy must improve this week, that is the big factor,” he added. “I looked at some of the statistics on the back of that Connacht defeat and I posed a couple of questions to the squad in the review.
“I asked them to explain to me why we can go toe-to-toe with Saracens and London Irish and then lose to, with all due respect to Connacht, the bottom team in the Magners League.
“We went through a few areas to clear the air on both sides and the biggest thing that came out of it was our accuracy.
“Against Leicester and Sale in the Guinness Premiership we made 180 tackles, against Connacht on Saturday we had to make 59. Even against Madrid, when we outscored them by 40 points, we made 110 tackles.
“We had so much of the ball and really our own errors, like an intercept try or a long throw on the lineout, let us down. We were never really under pressure in defence so we have only got ourselves to blame.
“The Guinness Premiership games are very different, there has not been that much open rugby, not that much phase play. It has been quite attritional and focused on the breakdown, kicking game and pressure.
“We were suddenly in a different game when we had lots of ball and the opportunity to move it, but we weren’t as accurate as we should have been.
“That is not an excuse though, it is not good enough. We have got to make sure our skills are much better and improve on last week.”
Ruddock has revealed a flu virus continues to bite in camp, but he hopes to be able to call on several players who missed the Connacht clash last weekend.
“Chris Pennell took a knock on his shoulder on Saturday, in his comeback game, and he is a little bit sore, but hopefully he should be okay for Friday,” he added.
“I was hoping that Ryan Powell could make the panel, but he is not over his rib cartilage injury yet so he won’t travel. But he is in contention for Northampton.
“Greg King is back, after being ruled out with a fractured jaw, and also David Lyons, who has been out after a groin operation. Joe Carlisle has some bruising on his shoulder playing for Coventry so will miss out.
“A few guys also have the flu or cold like symptoms, Marcel Garvey couldn’t play Saturday and he is still struggling a bit. Calum MacRae has also got a bit of the flu; but we hope he will be okay to travel.”