Andy’s new attitude means he’s coming Goode for the Worcester Warriors
While Saracens star Alex is being talked about as an England regular, 32-year-old Andy’s best days appeared behind him – until now.
Goode – the second highest points scorer in Premiership history – has proved pivotal to Worcester expanding their horizons by bringing game-breakers like David Lemi and Josh Matavesi into the action.
After four years without a try bonus point Worcester secured two in less than a week against Northampton and London Irish.
And head coach Richard Hill concurs that his side’s liberated approach is suiting the 17-cap international who he did not always see eye-to-eye with last season.
But while the Warriors may be more fun to watch it is the serious side of Goode that has so impressed Hill.
“I think he has realised the responsibility he has and responded to the attitude of the team around him,” Hill explained to The Rugby Paper.
“He is in a good environment. We have brought in other people like Paul Hodgson, David Lemi, Nikki Walker and Dean Schofield – who are all very dedicated professionals.
“And I moved a few people out of the team who were perhaps distracting influences and now Andy has become very serious about his rugby.
“At the moment he is a completely different person within the squad and I hope that continues.
“His attitude has been markedly different and as a result his play has improved as well. He is attacking the line a lot flatter and making things happen.
“I think he is enjoying playing in a team that has got a lot more ambition; I think that is what has sparked him off.
“He has got forwards around him that understand the game and he can marshall them a lot easier.
“For the moment I’m a really enjoying working with him.”
In contrast to last season, when he had to battle with Joey Carlisle for the number 10 jersey, Goode has started all five of Worcester’s Premiership games to date, kicking 66 points – half his team’s overall total.
But Hill says his kicking game out of hand – from an attacking perspective – has been just as impressive as that from the tee.
“We’ve worked hard on our attacking kicking game and he’s taken that on board and tried various things in games.
“We scored a try against Leicester at Welford Road where he chipped the ball over the top for Alex Grove to score.
“And at Northampton he tried to find David Lemi with a cross field kick from a penalty instead of going for goal. David’s not the tallest, mind you, but I didn’t mind him doing that because that’s the type of thing we’ve been working on in training and it will pay off at some stage.
“He is one of the best outside halves at using the full repertoire of attacking kicks effectively. If you look back at his career at Leicester and England the amount of tries that came from his little kicks were quite significant.
“Perhaps we didn’t use that as much as we should have last season because we were playing a low-risk style of rugby. But now he is doing that it is paying dividends.
“There’s no doubt Goodey has been exceptionally good for us.”
JON NEWCOMBE
