Worcester Warriors boss Mike Ruddock admitted he could not fault the effort of his team as they narrowly lost out 14-11 to Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop.
Warriors produced some impressive rugby in the Guinness Premiership clash with Miles Benjamin scoring a well worked first half try.
The match was on a knife edge throughout the second half until Rory Clegg’s long range penalty secured a slim victory for the hosts as Warriors had to settle for a losing bonus point.
“It’s difficult to be on the end of a defeat when we played some good rugby at times and scored a fantastic try,” said Ruddock.
“At times we did a lot of good things and I can’t fault the effort at all, we gave everything.
“Unfortunately we are reflecting on being on the wrong side of the penalty count again. It cost us and I think it was 16-9, including free kicks, and that has been the story of our season.
“We are trying to battle hard to get more awareness and reduce those penalties that we pressurise ourselves with, if we can get them out of our game we can be a really good team.
“At times we just give away a penalty, like that one under the posts at the scrum in the second half. We had just scored to go ahead and then we gave them a kick to get back in touch.
“We had no complaints about the high tackle decision at the end, Tom Wood just slid off the tackle. In fairness, he had a sore shoulder and I was just about to replace him. He has miss timed it and probably lacked a bit of strength in the shoulder and went high because of it.
“Rory Clegg then knocks over a monster penalty kick. Those are the sort of things we need to get out of our game. Otherwise our game is in good shape.”
Warriors mounted a brave late fight-back in the capital after Clegg’s penalty sailed over and secured a penalty themselves with time running out.
However, Worcester opted for a scrum and not a kick at goal – a decision that was backed up Ruddock after the game.
He said: “It was a swirling wind out there and it was not easy kicking, obviously the wind tended to be with Quins and hence Clegg was able to knock that penalty over from just inside his own half.
“It was always going to be a tricky kick for Matthew on the five metre line. He had missed one even with the wind slightly behind his back with the conversion in the first half
“The boys backed the scrum, as it has been pretty dominant over the last few games, and I can see the reason why they did that.
“Ultimately, we let them in for a try in the first half that was against the run of play and it was only towards the end that we gave a few penalties that we didn’t need to.
“In between we played some good rugby and it is tough to be on the wrong end when the margins are so tight.
“Fair play to the players for going for the win and backing our systems and scrum, we have been dominant in the last few weeks so I have no problem with that. It was a tough kick for Matthew to try and nail.”