RICHARD Hill spoke of his disappointment at how easily his pack were out-muscled by their London Irish opponents in the defeat at the Madejski Stadium.

The Warriors head coach looked on in dismay as his eight were pulverised by the Exiles’ power-packed driving game, which led directly to all three of their tries in the one-sided contest.

Toothless Worcester rallied after the break and spent large portions of the second period camped in the hosts’ half, but were unable to find any sort of cutting edge to break through.

In snowy and freezing conditions, the home side were dominant at the set-piece and with a strong driving maul that Hill conceded his team had failed to contain.

With Exeter Chiefs next up at Sixways on Saturday he admitted his Warriors would have to work hard to get that part of their game right.

Hill said: “Neither side were going to score tries from open play. It was too wet and the hands were so cold. Teams were going to score by kicking well and having a good scrum and driving maul.

“I thought the half-backs for London Irish kicked very accurately and put us under a lot of pressure, unfortunately our half-backs didn’t have the same accuracy.

“The driving maul was very efficient for them. We had worked hard at that, but we came off second best. They were able to drive us at will and they scored two tries from a drive and the third from a scrum that came after another.

“We had numerous opportunities five or 10 metres out from their line, far more than they did, and failed to do the same.

“I am disappointed and we are all very disappointed because we have worked hard on our mauling strategy, but when we needed it in wet conditions it didn’t happen.

“We targeted this to try and break that away run, but in the first 20 minutes we conceded two tries to driving mauls.

“On a day like that, when it was a big day for them, we fuelled the crowd and fuelled the Irish players. You’ve got to keep the crowd quiet and play well and start well — but it didn’t happen.

“On wet days, it is a battle of the forwards, if you win that and your half-backs kick well it is not rocket science — you win the game. But we didn’t have a strong enough platform and didn’t kick well enough.”