By Brian Dick, Coventry Telegraph
October 22 2009

MIKE Ruddock has urged Joey Carlisle to use his time at Coventry to fight his way back into the Worcester squad. The Sixways director of rugby revealed the 22-year-old had fallen behind Cov’s other Warriors loan player, George Crook, in the battle for top-flight action. Although Crook started the campaign at Butts Park Arena, his regular appearances in the Blue and White earned him a full Worcester debut in last Saturday’s Amlin Challenge Cup victory in Madrid.

The former Bromsgrove School pupil impressed with his kicking and the way in which he got the visitors’ backline moving – convincing Ruddock it is Carlisle who needs the time in the Championship.

“George is the man in possession and Joey will stay at Coventry until that changes,” Ruddock said.

“We told George a few weeks ago that Joey had more first-team experience and he had been part of the panel for quite a while and understudied Shane Drahm, Matthew Jones and Willie Walker.

“It was up to George to go away and get the sort of performance levels to oust Joey. He has done that and now the shoe is on the other foot.

“We can only pick on form and at form at the moment George has earned the right to be ahead of him.”

But Ruddock insists all is not lost for a player whose distribution is on a par with anything in the top flight but whose risk-taking approach costs his team as many points as it produces.

“Joey was not able to get too much game time and I think that showed when he played the A game and when he came on against Montpellier.

“I think he would be the first to admit he made a bad decision at the time.

“What I said to Joe is ‘I am going to put you know into Coventry, I want to see you play really well and come back into contention for the first team’.

“He is comfortable with that, he realises he needs regular competitive rugby where there are four points at stake and where there is a need for him to perform.”

Carlisle told to grab Cov chance

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 22/10/2009 17:11

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
22/10/2009 17:11

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