Monday, December 4, 2000.

THREE players were sin-binned after a brawl at Sixways yesterday but it was not enough to knock Worcester out of their stride as they got the decision on points - 21-16.

The heavyweight clash between the Gold'n'Blues and visiting Birmingham & Solihull boiled over in the 31st minute with Dave Sims and Chris Budgen both receiving yellow cards for their efforts.

Richard McCrainor was also given his marching orders early in the second half but it was Birmingham who came perilously close to inflicting Worcester's first National One defeat this season after leading the league high-flyers well into the last quarter of the game.

However, it was Adrian Skeggs' side who came off the ropes with a stirring fight-back which left the visitors flat on the canvas come the final whistle.

Worcester went into the game having seen their 11-point lead over second-placed Leeds Tykes cut to six after the Yorkshire club had beaten Henley impressively on Saturday. And the expectation seemed to get the better of the Sixways stars early on as Birmingham settled the quicker. Indeed, they won their first penalty of the match after just 17 seconds only to see Steve Gough inexplicably blast the chance wide.

He made amends for the miss, however, seven minutes later when he made it 3-0 after Earl Va'a had knocked on. It wasn't until the 12th minute before the home side began to get into the game but Sateki Tuipulotu was denied a try after a cheeky chip and run by a fine Paul Lydster tackle. Four minutes later, they finally made their possession tell and good interplay from Va'a, Rudi Keil and Tuipulotu carved open the Birmingham defence for Ally McLean to bag his fourth try in two matches. McLean, the hat-trick hero from last week's win at London Welsh, sprinted in to put Worcester 5-3 up. Tuipulotu was off target with a difficult conversion soon after though. The visitors seized on their chance to go back ahead on 20 minutes when Gough kicked another penalty to put them 6-5 in front. However, their advantage was short-lived as Tuipulotu ran in the second try of the game after a great pass from Va'a. Once again, though, he was off target with the extra points.

After the brawl, Keil almost burst through the Birmingham defence with a strong run only to be stopped by full-back Jim Quantrill. Gough brought his side within one point of Worcester with five minutes to go until half-time with another three points. And the Sixways side were staring down the barrel soon after when Dave Fryday's pass was intercepted by former Coventry winger Ricky Hyslop who then outpaced Worcester's speed-king Alistair Murdoch to run 70 metres and touch down. Gough converted to give the visitors hopes of a famous win as they led 16-10 at half time.

Worcester began the second period brightly and Tuipulotu narrowed the deficit to three points with a penalty on 53 minutes. The offence - a professional foul by McCrainor - earned him 10 minutes in the sin-bin and possibly cost his side the game as Worcester began to turn the screw. With Va'a orchestrating attacks superbly, it always looked a matter of when Skeggs' team would score next rather than if. With Chris Simpson-Daniel coming on for Richard Jarman, the England under-21 set up Worcester's third try with 22 minutes left as Tuipulotu ran in for his second of the day but could not follow it up with a conversion. His penalty, in the 76th minute, wrapped things up and they went close to scoring their fourth try and securing a bonus point late on. However, they could not but the celebrations at the end told the story. This was a hard-fought game, in every sense.

Worcester: Back (Calder 68), Tuipulotu, Murdoch, Keil, McLean, Va'a, Jarman (Simpson-Daniel 65), Windo, Lamerton, Lyman (Hartland 31), Sims, Zaltzman, Evans, Carter (Mather 68), Fryday. Subs not used: Denhardt, Moretti, Baxter.