Delighted Head Coach Richard Hill praised his Worcester Warriors as they edged out power-packed Perpignan 22-21 at soaked Sixways in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Fly half Andy Goode scored all the points as Warriors battled past the French Top 14 giants and also overcame horrendous conditions as rain lashed the teams throughout.
Hill was pleased with the manner with which his team battled back to claim victory with a penalty two minutes from time before James Hook missed a late drop goal attempt.
The result puts Warriors clear at the top of Pool 2 before next week’s return game at Stade Aime Giral in the South of France.
“That result has kept the group alive which is great,” said Hill.
“I think at the start of the season we may well have lost that sort of game, but the squad now has much more confidence in itself.
“Even when things don’t look good with five minutes to go we are still summoning up the confidence to try and win the game.
“It wasn’t a great spectacle,” he admitted. “The weather conditions were awful for both teams to play any decent rugby, but it was the attitude I was pleased with. We refused to give in even when it looked grim towards the end.
“We showed some good continuity towards the end and won the penalty for Andy Goode. We still did our best to lose it right at the end, that is standard for us, so if we can get that right we will be fine.”
Hill was also quick to praise the ‘winning attitude’ of his players as they dug deep to overcome a stern French examination and hold out in a heart stopping final few moments.
“You can do all the work on the training park with the strategy and skills. But the hardest thing for any club and coaching staff is to get that hard-nosed steely attitude and winning attitude,” said Hill.
“You 100 per cent believe you will win, even if you are playing teams like Perpignan who are a Heineken Cup team really.
“It’s not easy to get that; it can take a long while to get a group of players to feel like that. But at the moment this group is starting to believe which is vital.
“Yes, we need more accuracy now. But the passion, the desire, belief and confidence is really beginning to flow through the club. On nights like this they want to win for the supporters and win for the club to keep us moving forward.
“I felt tonight some of our three quarter play outshone Perpignan. They have a very powerful pack and you can see some of the size of their lads. But if you are going to beat them you have to nullify their scrum and nullify their maul. In the first half we did that.
“We did enough in the second half and after that they try and use one out runners and bludgeon you around the corners. If you can stop those, you are half way there.
“The conditions didn’t warrant it, we wanted to play some really open running rugby but a couple of hours before kick-off the heavens opened. But I still saw plenty of opportunities for us to go wide and on a dry patch in Perpignan I will be optimistic we can do some danger.”
“I think at the start of the season we may well have lost that sort of game, but the squad now has much more confidence in itself…"