Home victory cheers Hill

Published: Sunday, 5. February, 2012 in category Northern Hemishere

Richard Hill praised Worcester for keeping up their fine home record as they completed their LV= Cup campaign with a 24-14 win over Ospreys.

Hill: Impressed by Percival

Neither side will progress to the semi-finals, but for Worcester there was the consolation of recording a fourth straight home win since the start of the year.

With the snow-hit pitch almost totally white at the finish, the referee and players emerged with credit in providing and finishing a hard-fought and entertaining game.

Warriors head coach Hill said: "The players couldn't feel their hands out there. At times they couldn't assess whether they had caught the ball or not."

The Warriors fielded the more experienced side and were deserved winners, but the turning point came just before half-time when Ospreys flanker Sam Lewis was sin-binned for offside and in his absence Worcester scored a crucial 14 points.

Hill said: "We've kept up our winning run at home and that was important. It was 7-7 at half-time but those two tries within five minutes of the restart killed off the game as we displayed some excellent drives with James Percival at the forefront."

Despite the loss, Ospreys coach Steve Tandy was happy enough with his side's efforts.

Tandy said: "We were very competitive, we tried to play in very difficult conditions, but we tried to overplay at times. The sin-binning was costly as they scored 14 points when we had 14 men."

Discussing the merits of the LV= Cup itself, Tandy said: "It's a great competition, we've had some excellent cross-border fixtures and the young squad have improved considerably since the first game at Exeter to come here and compete with a strong Worcester side."

Hill offered his viewpoint on the competition, saying: "I've enjoyed it, we've given different players a start but I was disappointed with our performance at Saracens last week because I thought we could win and come here today with a chance of progressing."

Worcester will resume their Premiership fixtures with a visit to Sale on Friday night.

Hill said: "We have work to do as we have to be a bit smarter if playing conditions remain the same. There were glimpses of what was required in the second half but we have to show more control."