WORCESTER Warriors “fed a very dangerous back three” in their 34-13 Aviva Premiership defeat at Leicester Tigers, according to head coach Carl Hogg.

And the Warriors chief felt his troops should have booted the ball into the stands in the first half rather than let Tigers build a head of steam.

Instead, Warriors kept the ball on the pitch for long periods and Tigers punished them to power into a commanding 20-0 lead at the interval.

Hogg said: “In the first half we left the ball on the field and we didn’t exit as cleanly as we would have liked, fed a very dangerous Leicester back three and they profited from it.

“In the second half we were much more robust. We had talked about trying to hold field position and get to phase-play rugby but ultimately the contest at 20-0 down gave us a mountain to climb.

“I just didn’t think we were as accurate and clinical, especially coming out of our own half.

“We wanted to take the ball off the field and put them in a set-piece.”

He added: “We wanted to come up to Leicester to express ourselves.

“We didn’t think coming up, sitting in an arm-wrestle and a set-piece game would suit us so we came up with a level of ambition to play but unfortunately we didn’t get high field position in first half and struggled to get ball in hand.”

Despite the defeat, which leaves Warriors second-bottom in the Premiership, Hogg was happy with the “character” from his side.

“I was very pleased with the character we showed,” Hogg said.

“At 20-0 down we were staring down the barrel at half-time but we were much more accurate in the way we came out of our own half in the second period and it gave us a foothold.

“We look a reasonable side when we’ve got ball in hand but that’s not the game of rugby.

“The game of rugby is sometimes about doing the simple things very well at a foundation level and we need to get better.

“We dropped off a little bit. Leicester are a big, powerful side and if you don’t chop and tackle their legs away and make the contest on the floor, it can roll over the top of you. But we left a lot of ball on the field which could have gone out.”

Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: “The players needed to front up and they did that but I thought that, at times, we still struggled defensively.

“With respect to Worcester, against better sides we would have been punished.

“We need to keep working hard and improve. We have been a bit too easy to play against.”