Head Coach Richard Hill pulled no punches as he admitted frustration had got the better of his Worcester Warriors as they battled back to claim a narrow 32-25 victory over Rotherham Titans on home soil.
Warriors were indebted to a late try from hooker Ed Shervington to make it three wins out of three in the RFU Championship after a tense battle at Sixways.
Rotherham adopted a forward orientated tactic to negate any attacking play from Warriors and enjoyed success as they denied Worcester ball for long periods and grabbed three close-range tries.
Hill insisted his team would learn from a difficult afternoon on home soil as a second half fight-back earned success, but warned his players a repeat performance next week against Esher would not be accepted.
“You can see why Rotherham have won their first two games with that strategy,” he said. “They came with a game plan to make sure we didn’t get ball – they knew if we had that we would be dangerous.
“They kept it tight in the forwards and weren’t going to go anywhere at times in the middle of the field. They just invited us to concede penalties.
“We watched the game against Bristol and that is exactly what happened, they pick and go from their own line almost and Bristol were getting frustrated and handing them penalties. Unfortunately we fell into the same trap.
“We talked about the referee, he had a zero tolerance with anyone wrapping up or holding the ball carrier. We talked about tackling and rolling away, but we were tested to the full because it is hard to get the ball off the opposition when they slug around the corner like that.
“Eventually one or two players were going in and conceding penalties. They then kicked to the corner and we had to defend a driving lineout or a series and pick and goes.
“It is an effective tactic to win games with the new laws because it is hard to get hold of the ball. It’s not attractive to watch and you sit on the touch line just watching their pick and go, it will send you to sleep.
“But we got frustrated and did not do what we should have done – we conceded penalties and field position and we have got to learn.”
Hill was, however, pleased with the way his team fronted up in the second half after admitting the Warriors had endured a difficult opening 40 minutes.
He added: “We struggled up front, by our own admission we were outmuscled in the first half.
“They had the pack of forwards that had the edge in the first half; we were perhaps a little lightweight so we brought on bulk with Adam Black and Greg Rawlinson.
“That certainly turned that around and we started to be stronger in the scrum. I was pleased that we had our own driving lineout to win the game and our forwards finished on top.
“But I was disappointed, as are the forwards, that it took us 40 minutes to get the upper-hand against the Rotherham pack. It is a good pack, but I wouldn’t be expecting them to dominate ours.”