MIKE Ruddock openly admits he is moulding his Worcester Warriors side to play the game in the Newcastle Falcons mode.

But Ruddock takes that one step further this weekend as he attempts to beat the Falcons at their own free-flowing, attacking game.

The two sides meet at Kingston Park in the Guinness Premiership tomorrow (3pm).

Former Wales coach Ruddock has done his homework and the Warriors A' team players have put their first-team colleagues to the test by running Newcastle's offensive plays at them in a bid to sharpen up the defence.

The Sixways director of rugby said: "We've done a lot of good work this week. We've had our A' team running Newcastle's plays against us so we could go into structures and look at how to defend against them.

"Ultimately, Newcastle have got a lot of talented ball-players - particularly at 10 and 12 - and I am a big fan of the way they play.

"They've got threats throughout the team and their big forwards are comfortable out in the wide channels, which is impressive and something we've tried to work at too.

"I think the league needs a team like Newcastle - to play the way they play. A lot of teams come out to stop you, close down the tackle area and make life difficult.

"There are not enough teams going out there to play, but Newcastle are one of the teams who do that and I think they are very good.

"We will be trying to get into good positions early to put Newcastle under pressure and then we will look to convert that pressure into points."

Ruddock admitted it had not been a merry Christmas or happy New Year at Sixways but insists the team are still determined to succeed.

He said: "We are hurting and down in the dumps at the moment. We wanted to come through the Christmas and New Year period with at least two wins but we haven't achieved those targets and we're disappointed.

"We've done a lot of soul-searching but, having said that, there is still a very upbeat camp and the morale is excellent."

Warriors: Delport; Gear, Rasmussen, Tuitupou, Benjamin; Crichton, M Powell; Morris, Lutui, Taumoepeau, Rawlinson, Gillies, Wood, Sanderson (c), Hickey. Replacements: Ruwers, Mullan, Bowley, Quinnell, Arr, Brown, Pennell.

Falcons: Tait; May, Noon (c), Flood, Rudd; Wilkinson, Grindal; Golding, Long, Hayman, Perry, Sorenson, Parling, Woods, Wilson. Replacements: Thompson, Ward, Tomes, Winter, Dickson, Visser, Phillips.