Worcester in moves to offer starlet Alex Grove new deal
Mar 3 2009 by Brian Dick, Birmingham Post
Mike Ruddock is striving to retain the services of Worcester’s rising star Alex Grove after the young centre turned in a man of the match performance against London Wasps last Saturday.
The 21-year-old marked his first Premiership start with a try in the 13-12 victory over the reigning champions and now seems set to keep his starting place against Northampton Saints on Saturday.
But the academy product is out of contract at the end of the season and is in talks with Worcester about extending his stay at the Sixways.
Grove has played in 12 games in all competitions this term and has made a decent impact appearing at both inside and outside centre.
But it was Saturday’s interception score and a seismic hit on former England international Josh Lewsey that have been the highlights so far and only further convinced Ruddock to step up his bid to keep another homegrown starlet.
“I am in negotiations with his agent at the moment and they are going pretty well,” Ruddock said. “I don’t want to say too much yet but we’d like to keep him at the club.
“He is a really determined kid, he has been knocking on my door every week for 18 months asking what he has to do to get into the team. He showed signs when he came on against Leicester the other week just how up for it he was.
“When you have got a lad like that really busting to get into the game sooner or later when you let him off the leash he is going to go some for you – he certainly did that against Wasps.”
Ruddock is also confident of securing the futures of Grove’s fellow academy team-mates Callum Black and Johnny Arr though he is less sure about the prospect of bringing fly half Nicky Robin on to the Midlands.
The Cardiff outside half is also a free agent in the summer but Ruddock does not expect him to leave the Blues.
“If he was interested in us we would definitely be interested in him but I would be surprised if he did leave Cardiff what with it being his testimonial year,” he said.
The director of rugby was more optimistic about forwards Will Bowley and Pat Sanderson being fit in time for this weekend’s match against Saints. Bowley broke his nose against Wasps while Sanderson lost a tooth although Ruddock expects both plus Dale Rasmussen and Chris Latham to be available.
