Ruddock still having a ball despite threat of relegation

Mike Ruddock was not so chastened by his time as Wales coach that he took to cheering for his country's opponents in the recent World Cup. But when Australia's full-back, Chris Latham, ran in two tries in the pool match at the Millennium Stadium, which helped knock the Welsh out of the tournament early, Ruddock could not resist a smile of satisfaction. It meant the world-renowned Wallaby was on his way to Worcester.

"We'd been asked before the World Cup if we were interested in signing Chris," says Ruddock, who joined Worcester as director of rugby in the summer, a year after he departed the Wales job. "Of course we were interested he's the best full-back in the world but I was concerned that he'd had an injury, [an anterior cruciate ligament], and I wanted to see how he went.

"He exceeded my expectations, he was fantastic. There were those two tries against Wales and generally he was better than ever. He only came to rugby afterhe left school, and even though he's 32 he gave me a clear message that he feels fresh and can still get better. He knows the Premiership is a tough league."

So too, after a few months at Sixways, does Ruddock. More so, he admits, than when he began. Worcester, survivors by a point in second-bottom place last season, are bottom now after no wins and one draw from seven matches. They have won four out of four in the European Challenge Cup, but while their trips to Romania and Italy have bucked up confidence, the sorry-looking Premiership standings have been unchanging. Ruddock and his fellow Welshman, the head coach, Clive Griffiths, are in want of a league win.

"The table doesn't lie," Ruddock says. "We're at the bottom and deserve to be there. I've got to catch up on knowing the opposition inside out, which I think you can only do by having a season or two at this level which I obviously hope to do.

"The one thing that has surprised me is opposing teams' ability to punish mistakes. It is a level below internationals, but most sides are very good at picking out a weakness in your game, or a mistake, and capitalising on it. If you mess up you get hurt. Unfortunately we've messed up on too many occasions. I'd settle for a one-point win in the next game if I can get it."

The next game is this afternoon, away to London Irish: a team with a big, quick, clever back-line. Exactly what Worc-ester have been lacking, or at least they were until some of their overseas signings turned up. Latham will arrive sometime during next summer, but Rico Gear and Sam Tuitupou, two high-quality All Blacks, got their Worc-ester careers under way in recentweeks. Ruddock's sons Ciaran and Rhys have captained the Ospreys' Under-20s and Under-18s respectively, but their father insists Worcester's future will be based on young Englishmen and not endless trips to the airport to pick up the latest import.

"Chris Latham will be a mentor to our young full-back Chris Pennell," says Ruddock. The same goes, already, for Loki Crichton, of Samoa, with the fly-half Joe Carlisle, and Gear and the lock Greg Rawlinson with Miles Benjamin and Graham Kitchener respectively. Ruddock reels off a list of youngsters who have played in the first team this season: Pennell, Carlisle and Benja-min, a wing; Tom Wood, a flanker; Matt Mullan, a prop; and Jonny Arr, a scrum-half. At the other end of the age scale, the prop Tony Windo is a player-coach.

"I want to build a similar ethos to Leicester, where players come through to coach over time," Ruddock says. "Cecil Duckworth [Worcester's chairman] understands what we're trying to build." But does Ruddock understand Duckworth, the famously hard-to-please benefactor and owner? "I've got huge regard for what Cecil's done here and I don't want to let him down. But it's nothing new for me."

Ruddock won the Welsh league at Swansea in the 1990s when the club was ruled by committee, the famous "house of lords". He has worked forLeinster in Ireland, and for the owner-benefactor Tony Brown at Newport-Gwent Dragons. Only at Ebbw Vale for a short stint did he find out what life was like at the wrong end of the league. "Relegation will occupy your thoughts if you allow it to," Ruddock admits.

"We've got belief in what we're doing and that we won't be in that position at the end of the season, and that once we turn the corner we'll move on to bigger and better things."

The r-word has not, however, been entirely glossed over. Ruddock says Latham and the other overseas recruits have no opt-out clause in the event of Worcester's season turning the shape of the club's motif: the three pears.