MIKE Ruddock admitted a hard-fought 32-9 victory over Doncaster Knights had been the ideal work-out in pre-season for Worcester Warriors.

Warriors ran in four tries through Rico Gear, Dale Rasmussen, Chris Pennell and Charlie Fellows as an impressive second-half show saw them record a first win in the pre-season schedule.

Director of Rugby Ruddock insisted the clash had been a huge physical test for his side ahead of the new Guinness Premiership season.

And he has now tipped his side to get even better when they welcome Moseley to Sixways Stadium on Saturday for the only game on home soil during the warm-up schedule.

“The game was exactly the game we needed, the ideal work-out at this stage of pre-season,” he said.

“Doncaster are very physical and a hard bunch at home, certainly in the first-half they wanted to put a mark on us and were physical to make sure we knew we were in a contest. We played into a strong first-half breeze and although we made some changes we knocked-on and any rustiness we had was evident.

“But in the second-half we made our chances count and took advantage of the wind to put some good kicks in field and attacked with real purpose. We were rewarded with some good tries.”

Warriors played under the new laws for the first time and Ruddock was pleased with the way his side adapted.

He added: “Overall I thought we did very well with the new laws in practice. There were a couple of areas where we need to sharpen up but we have got to be happy with how we took them on board and used them in a real live game.”

New boys Ben Jones and Matthew Jones both made full team debuts in the encounter.