Crook ready for life in the Premiership

The up-and-coming stand-off, who has moved ahead of Joe Carlisle in the Sixways fly-half pecking order and will be on the bench for tomorrow’s Guinnes Premiership clash with Harlequins, impressed director of rugby Mike Ruddock while playing on loan for Coventry.

The former Bromsgrove School pupil admitted that the step up in physicality from ‘A’ League rugby was exactly what he needed to raise his game to force his way in to the first team reckoning at Sixways — even if that did involve taking a pounding at the bottom of a few rucks.

The 21-year-old, who ran the Worcester back-line with great maturity as well as successfully converting all five tries against Madrid last weekend, explained: “It was good getting game time in the Championship, because it is a tough old league with a lot of big boys and plenty of good players too.

“It is different to the Premiership because when a big boy runs at you, he still puts a bit of footwork in too whereas, in the Championship, they look you in the eye and try to run straight over the top of you.

“There’s also a couple of fists flying around your face when you’re at the bottom of rucks and that is a good learning process!”

He added: “At Coventry, I also spent a lot of time working with player-coach Tommy Hayes, who used to play fly-half for Worcester. He has so much experience and is a top guy — I learnt a lot from him.

“The director of rugby at Coventry is Phil Maynard, who used to be at Worcester too. He gave me a bit of a drilling after my first game for them because we lost.

“That was something I’d not really experienced — in our ‘A’ team, if you don’t win it is more about how you learn from it.

“In the Championship it is all about winning — ultimately it is his job on the line. I missed a couple of kicks and he laid into me afterwards.

“I felt I’d played some nice rugby but we’d lost — however, the next week we went up to Doncaster and won. Before that game, I’d had a long sit down with Tommy talking about how to win a match, even if it means not playing pretty rugby — it’s all about results.

“I think those kind of experiences will stand me in good stead with Worcester.

“Willie Walker is very good at that — he knows how to win matches and I’ve learnt a lot from him.”

Crook also revealed he is revelling in playing alongside and working with legends of the game such as Chris Latham.

The academy product said: “I’ve been doing some kicking practice with Chris and some of the things he has told me have just made me think ‘how does someone know so much about kicking a ball’.

“He puts in more hours on the training field than anyone else and he works a lot with the youngsters like me and full-back Mike Penn.

“Some days he won’t even do any kicking himself, he’ll just spend time with us talking about it.

“Recently, I watched a DVD of the greatest moments of the Rugby World Cup and there are a couple featuring him and some with Rico Gear too and it makes you think ‘hang on a minute, I’m playing alongside these guys’ —it’s pretty crazy really.”

Crook added: “I think what Mike has done at Worcester is pretty unreal and it is great to be a young player at a club where young players are really given a chance — it is ideal.

“This is the perfect club for me to be at — there is enough experience in the side to be able to give the youngsters a go too.”