Coach reflects on missed opportunities

Academy Assistant Manager Gary Meechan admitted the Warriors A team had paid the price for not taking early chances as they narrowly lost out 25-23 to Northampton Wanderers on Monday Night.

Warriors flew out of the traps to lead 13-0 courtesy of a Rico Gear try and two penalties from Matthew Jones in the Northern Conference fixture in the A League.

However, a number of other scoring chances just failed to be converted and proved costly as Northampton fought back to claim a slim victory at Sixways Stadium.

“We had the opportunity to win tonight, more than once. We have missed four or five good chances to score and never got the ball across the whitewash,” said Meechan.

“The game is all about playing basics well and I think they probably did that a bit better than we did.

“We played The Army last week and the first 20 minutes we were chasing shadows. The challenge this week was to come out of the blocks and try and do the same to them for the first 20 minutes.

“I felt we did that, but came away with six points when we should have come away with 20 points.”

Warriors A are next in action with two away trips to Sale Sharks (March 29) and Leicester Tigers (April 12) and Meechan is keen for Worcester to continue to make strides forward.

“We are still a developing side in terms of the rugby we want to play, what we are trying to do is continue and play the kind of rugby that Mike Ruddock wants to be playing,” he added.

“If you want that type of game you have to work on continuity. It’s important we keep hold of the ball and we didn’t do enough of that tonight against Northampton.

“We have spoken to the players and they are bitterly disappointed, as they should be with a loss. It doesn’t matter who you lose to and by how many, nobody goes out onto a pitch to lose and we certainly don’t do that.

“We have now got to think about Sale Sharks and Leicester Tigers away, there are going to be tough games but it is a challenge the team we look forward as we look to respond to this defeat.”


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