Gold: Mills has given us control at 10
FRANCOIS Hougaard may have been creating headlines at Worcester, but Warriors boss Gary Gold says another half-back has been equally instrumental in the club’s recent burst of form.
Ryan Mills has prospered at fly-half for Worcester ever since Gold’s arrival as interim director of rugby, with the 24-year-old being hailed as “world-class” by team-mates.
Gold says Mills’ leadership and game management at 10 has been instrumental in the Warriors’ stabilisation – despite the former England U20s player preferring to play at inside centre.
Since Gold’s arrival at Sixways at the end of January the Warriors have defeated Saracens and Bristol in the Premiership, and they collected two bonus points in last Sunday’s spirited 40-33 loss at Wasps.
Mills’ stock has risen too, with Premiership rivals understood to be interested in signing him, as reported in Blindside last week.
Gold said: “The nice thing about Ryan is that he is a strong leader and is confident in making the calls. He’s worked out really well at fly-half.
“It’s been brilliant for me as a coach because he’s really bought in to what we’ve tried to sell to him, and maybe that’s not even his natural game. But, as he himself said, we needed to clean things up.
“There were areas around our game management that needed work. At times we were putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure due to the areas of the field we were playing in.
“Ryan’s been brilliant. He was very good against Bristol and ran the show well, as he did against Saracens. He’s a wonderful rugby player and he can obviously play 12 as well.
“I don’t necessarily think fly-half is his favourite position but he’s certainly doing a good job for us there. I see him continuing there for the foreseeable future.”
After a three-year spell at Gloucester in which he was widely regarded as being under-utilised, Mills switched to Worcester in 2015.
Another back who moved to Sixways at the same time is Wynand Olivier, who says Mills has benefited from playing alongside fitagain scrum-half Hougaard.
“Gary has given control to Francois and Ryan, who dictate where we play and it has given them loads of confidence,” Olivier said.
“Millsy has shown that if he’s given the confidence he’s a world-class player.
“He’s been outstanding and I think it’s nice for him to have a guy like Francois inside him, taking quite a bit of pressure off him.
“Francois likes to run with the ball and he’s got a big boot on him, which has freed Millsy up.”