Ruddock wants Benjamin to go to under 20 world cup

6:35pm Sunday 11th May 2008

WARRIORS director of rugby Mike Ruddock would prefer wing wonder Miles Benjamin to earn a place in the England Under 20s squad as opposed to seeing him included in the Saxons set-up at this juncture.

With the England full and Saxons squads due to be announced at 10am tomorrow, Ruddock is hoping his try machine, who turned 20 yesterday, is given the chance to go to the under 20 world cup rather than on tour with the national team's second string.

“We won the second-half 31-0 which shows how tired they were, but as much as we are pleased with the performance and the result, we will keep it in perspective, though, and we know it will be a lot tougher in two weeks’ time against Bath in the European Challenge Cup final."

Mike Ruddock

However, should Benjamin, who has scored 15 tries in all competitions this term, be named in head coach Steve Bates' Saxons squad, Ruddock has no doubt the Solihull-born speedster would be up to the task.

The Welshman said: "The feedback I am getting is that they might look to play Miles in the under 20 world cup and I would support that. Even though I'm sure he'd make a big impact in the Saxons, he's got loads and loads of time to do that.

"Playing against the best players in his age group from around the world would be a really good opportunity for him and won't come around again unless he makes the senior world cup squad.

"I wouldn't be against him going with the under 20s but, having said that, if the Saxons do put him in, I'm sure he'll do a fantastic job."

Bates, who is acting director of rugby at Newcastle Falcons, saw his side put to the sword by Benjamin and Co. for the second time in the space of a month as Warriors trounced the men from Kingston Park 51-10 on the final day of the the Guinness Premiership season to claim 10th place in the table.

Ruddock added: "In fairness to Newcastle, they've had a really tough week. It was a great result for us and a lot of good things that we have talked about since the start of the season actually came through in the field, so that was very rewarding.

"We won the second-half 31-0 which shows how tired they were, but as much as we are pleased with the performance and the result, we will keep it in perspective, though, and we know it will be a lot tougher in two weeks' time against Bath in the European Challenge Cup final.

"If we're honest, there were times when we put the ball down when we shouldn't have put the ball down and there was a try against us in the first-half that we're pretty filthy about.

"Sorry to sound a bit negative, but as a coach, you always want a little bit more - you see a few passes not going to hand and tend to think about those at the end.

"In fairness to my players, it was great to see them playing with that liberation and being prepared to off-load and put the ball wide and into space. Sometimes at the beginning of the season that was costing us games with interception tries and us not quite knowing the right time to do it, but we've learnt some big lessons and come a long way this year.

"Now we are seeing better decision-making all round in our play, we are more confident and the bounce of the ball has been going our way too. We think we've done a lot of hard work and hopefully that will provide us with a good platform for next year.

Ruddock was also full of praise for departing trio Thinus Delport, Shane Drahm and Drew Hickey - as well as retiring prop Tony Windo.

Ruddock said: "We gave the four guys who are leaving at the end of this year a big thank you before and after the game and it was nice for them to go out together before the rest of the team so the crowd, who as ever were fantastic, could show their appreciation for their efforts for the club over an extended period."

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