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MIKE Ruddock has pin-pointed the group stages of the European Challenge Cup as the catalyst that kick-started Worcester Warriors' faltering Guinness Premiership campaign.

The Sixways outfit went 10 league games without a victory before finally registering a 25-5 home success against Bristol on January 26.

However, the Warriors chief believes confidence-boosting ECC pool stage victories over Montauban, Gran Parma and Bucuresti breathed life into his side and they've hardly looked back since.

He said: "What's pleased me is that we have steadily improved.

"The second-half of the season in particular has been quite rewarding.

"Looking back, our performances in the group stage of the Challenge Cup helped us to feel a little bit more liberated about what we were doing and have less pressure on us in terms of on the field and the mindset.

"Getting those wins in the pool stages was quite a crucial period for us.

"By the semi-final with Newcastle, we were probably playing some of our best rugby of the season.

"That's allowed us to get to the final and to start picking up league wins in the second-half of the season. Last Saturday was an example of that at Bristol.

"There has been continuous improvement and hopefully we can finish it off in a little bit of style tomorrow at home in front of our fans, who have been very patient, before in the cup final itself.

"I think we can still go on and get better. There are still things in our game that we think we can improve upon.

"When you look at our recent results, then you realise that we've come a long way already but we want to be at that standard week in, week out next season."

Ruddock freely admits it took his new charges longer than he expected to buy into his coaching philosophy.

However, he puts that down to the fact he'd never worked in the Premiership before.

The Welshman added: "It took the players a while to adjust to what we wanted them to do.

"It did take us longer than we thought for the guys to come up to speed with that.

"It took us a while to adjust to the Premiership, it is a very different league to what I've been involved with in the past but thankfully it's all moving in the right direction now."

Warriors will be looking to move above Newcastle in the league table when the Falcons visit Sixways tomorrow (3pm).

Having seen his side run out comfortable winners when the two sides met in the ECC semi-final, Ruddock is full of confidence.

However, he is expecting the Kingston Park outfit to bring a different game-plan to Sixways this time.

He said: "Newcastle had a very good win over Leicester at the weekend and they will be keen to stay in front of us in the league table.

"Even though it's an end-of-season game, without the worries of relegation, there's still a lot on the game because both sides fancy there might be an opportunity to finish above the other in the table so that will add a bit of bite.

"The semi-final win will give us confidence, there's no doubt about that. They were very different in the way they played against Leicester than the way played against us.

"They tried to move us around, from side to side, but our defence was fantastic and they couldn't find a way through. Against Leicester, they were much more direct, brought on big ball-carriers and tried to punch holes through the game line and not go as wide as often.

"If I'm honest, we probably expect them to do something similar against us tomorrow and that will change the nature of the game quite considerably. I think it will be a very different game."

9:15am Friday 9th May 2008

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