Hard work and ‘honesty’ turn Worcester tide

By Andrew Deering at Sixways

Ted Hill has seen some dark days at Worcester this season, but the captain insists Jonathan Thomas’s side are fighting their way out of trouble.

A tense victory over Wasps was another step in the right direction, although the hosts were made to sweat for it in the final few minutes.

Worcester won only one of their opening six Premiership games, but in the past six weeks they have started to show signs of improvement under the guidance of head coach Thomas.

This defeat of Wasps by the narrowest of margins was Worcester’s third consecutive victory at home and their second bonus-point success in four league matches.

The performance displayed a huge amount of character and belief as they held off Wasps, qualities Hill believes are being enhanced on a weekly basis.

“It comes from putting the work in during the week and then seeing the effort at the weekend come to light,” he said. “We are honest with each other and we want to challenge each other. Then we get the performances at the weekend. That is how confidence is built.”

Worcester’s tries came from Gareth Simpson, Duhan van der Merwe, Hill and Will Chudley as they recorded a bonus point despite leaking five scores at the other end.

Dan Frost (2), Vaea Fifita, Sam Wolstenholme and Tom Willis scored the tries for Wasps, who fell to a fifth straight defeat in all competitions. Hooker Frost said: “Our errors have let us down. We are keeping in the fight, but we can’t be switching off. We have to be on it for 80 minutes.”