Warriors chief is refusing to throw in the towel

Worcester chief Mike Ruddock insists he retains hope the Warriors can win their grim Guinness Premiership survival fight.

Ruddock's team are potentially two defeats from the drop, which would end six successive seasons in English rugby's top flight.

They host title play-off contenders Wasps on Saturday, before a relegation showdown with Leeds Carnegie – one place and three points above Worcester – in Yorkshire eight days later.

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By the time Gloucester arrive at Sixways on May 8 – the last day of regular season action – Worcester could already be down.

It is the doomsday scenario for a club of such big ambition on and off the pitch, but games are running out in a campaign that has produced just three Premiership wins, and only one since September.

The latest loss – a 23-13 home defeat against London Irish – did not, though, leave Ruddock downhearted.

"The energy and effort is there, it is just that little bit of precision that we have missed all season," he said.

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"It's more individual error than team error, and so that gives me hope that we can get out of the pickle we are in.

"If we weren't a united and proud team, with the amount of ball London Irish had they could have ripped us apart.

"The Leeds game is big, but we can't think about that just yet. We have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down.

"We have talked about four battles that we have got ahead of us. We have lost the first one, so we must regroup and try and win the second. That is all we can do.

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"We are giving 100 per cent, but what we are not quite good enough at throughout the course of 80 minutes is nailing down each and every opportunity that comes our way."

Worcester led 10-3 until five minutes before half-time, but quickfire tries from the Armitage brothers Delon and Steffon, who both pressed strong claims to tour Australia and New Zealand with England this summer, helped lift Irish back into a play-off place.

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