Boss Mike Ruddock insisted he was proud of his battling Worcester Warriors after a ‘tenacious’ derby display – despite Dave Attwood’s last gasp score denying his side triumph at Kingsholm.
First half tries from Rico Gear and Jonny Arr put Warriors in control of the Guinness Premiership clash.
But Attwood’s dramatic late intervention saw Warriors secure a fourth draw in five league games and leave Ruddock to contemplate another stalemate.
“It was heart breaking to concede a try in the last minute,” he said. “Gloucester had a lot of ball in the second half and created a lot of chances. Ultimately we were stretched and they got that score.
“In terms of the league, it is about picking up points as often as we can. A draw is not ideal, but we are picking up points, particularly when we are away from home.
“It was a very resolute performance from all the players. We were tenacious in defence, we were working for each all other all the way through the game and trying to stop the waves of Gloucester attacks.”
Warriors could have taken all the points, with Willie Walker just missing a late second half penalty that slide just wide of the up rights.
Ruddock added: “We could have gone on and won it, we had a chance late in the second half with a kick at goal. I suppose they missed a few kicks as well. But that was a crucial one for us as we would have gone two scores ahead.
“We know we are very competitive and hard to beat. We have got to keep on doing that in the second half of the season and then I’m sure we will be fine.
“I thought the first half performance from us was excellent. We had a shaky start, we gave them that first try with the interception.
“In fairness to Gloucester they constructed some good moves and broke us down well at the end, but the first try will rankle with us as an easy one for them.
“After that I felt we took control of the game and the rest of the first half we had really good field position at times and scored two nice tries both on the short side.
“We were in a very good position to kick on, but in the second half they upped the tempo and made the most of the fact we struggled in the lineout again, which is a bit of a concern for us.
“It meant we had to defend and defend and for most of the game we did it. I looked at the clock when that last attack was happening and there were five seconds left when he put the ball down.
“It was a bit of a heartbreak, but we will take those two points and we will look to carry on up.”
Ruddock was also full of praise for big prop Olivier Sourgens, who started the game after a late withdrawal of Tevita Taumoepeau through illness.
“We were really pleased with Olivier, I thought he was fantastic and our scrum dominated their scrum, particularly in the first half,” he added.
“Olivier has had some injury problems this year so it was a big effort from him. He has not had a lot of game time. To go 70 minutes was fantastic.
“He looked like he was enjoying himself with that series of scrums at the end of the first half.”