Saturday, October 7, 2000.

WORCESTER Rugby Club were in seventh heaven on Saturday after ending their Coventry hoodoo with a 34-17 win at Barkers Butts Lane.

The Sixways side lead the Nat-ional League Division One table by seven points after just five matches as closest rivals Exeter went down 27-18 at Moseley.

Worcester had not won in Coundon for three years but began the game in blistering fashion with a try after just 43 seconds.

Boosted by magnificent vocal support from the visiting Worcester supporters, Adrian Skeggs' men took the lead with a Matthew Back try after a powerful surge by the full-back.

It was a fine opening move, involving the recalled Chris Simpson-Daniel and Earl Va'a and it gave the visitors the momentum needed on a quagmire of a pitch. Sateki Tuipulotu slotted home the extra points soon after to put Worcester firmly in charge.

Martyn Davies then put Coventry back in touch with a penalty before Worcester slammed their foot on the accelerator. Only dogged defending by the home side prevented Worcester increasing the lead but after another Tuipulotu penalty on 33 minutes, skipper Alistair Murdoch broke through to touch down.

It was a well-worked try and was a deserved score after such a dominant spell of possession.

Tuipulotu kicked the conversion to make it 17-3 before Davies added another three points for Coventry on the half-time whistle.

Davies opened the scoring in the second half with his third penalty to bring the home side within eight points of the league leaders however, any thoughts of a comeback were put on the back-burner as Back burst through in the 55th minute for his second try of the match.

It was classic stuff and gave supporters a glimpse of the expansive game, Skeggs wants to see more of this season. Tuipulotu kicked the extra points as Worcester once again began to eye another bonus point. Ambitions of the bonus point and a hefty win, however, were transferred to just plain survival midway through the second period as Coventry began to force their visitors back.

After Davies had added his fourth penalty, Carl Southwell bagged a try to cut the gap to just seven points.

The tension mounted as Coventry went in search of the try which would put them back on terms only to see Simpson-Daniel steal the ball and run fully 50 yards to touch down and bring a huge sigh of relief to Skeggs and chief executive Geoff Cooke.

Tuipulotu missed the conversion but Worcester could once again celebrate the bonus point after their fourth try of the match.

They collected a fifth late on when winger Spencer Bromley capitalised on a defensive lapse by Kurt Johnson to score in the corner.

Tuipulotu was once again off target with the conversion but it mattered not to the Sixways fans who came away from Coventry feeling that maybe this year would be different after burying the hoodoo.