Solomons hails “exceptional” Warriors

Warriors’ Director of Rugby Alan Solomons hailed the exceptional performance of his players to overcome appalling weather and a first half deficit to claim a valuable 19-14 Gallagher Premiership away win at Harlequins.

Torrential rain left standing water on The Stoop pitch and numbing cold made conditions even more miserable for the players. But Warriors had factored the weather forecast into their plans and they played an intelligent wet weather game based on shrewd tactical kicking from Michael Heaney, Jono Lance and Jamie Shillcock.

“To come here in this kind of weather and come back from 14-3 down early on in the first half to win that game was exceptional,” Solomons said.

“It was a question of field position and both sides realised that. It became absolutely imperative in these conditions and obviously errors were a major factor too. But I thought we played the game really well.

“We spoke about it all week and at the hotel before we came over. We knew the weather was coming in, so it was a question of fronting up, managing the game and handling the conditions which we did.

“In the first half we had one long spell and came away with nothing. The other two times we came away with penalties. The other two times we came away with penalties.

“The penalty that Jono got just before half-time was critical because then I felt we were back in that game. It was only a five-point difference.

“But the resilience of the players was incredible. It was a fantastic performance.

“It was very difficult to get tempo for either sides as the conditions were not great.

“Fortunately it wasn’t massively windy but the rain just teemed down the whole afternoon.”

“It was not very comfortable to watch at the end. It was pretty nerve-wracking, but we handled it 100 per cent correctly.

“It was vital for us to win after the disappointment of last weekend because we should have beaten Exeter as I have said umpteen times.

“I believe we had a real golden opportunity this afternoon. We spoke about how in life you only get a few of those opportunities  and you have to take them and we did that today.”

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