Saturday, September 6, 2003

DISGRACEFUL and inept.

Not my assessment of the carnage on show at Cross Green but rather John Brain's.

Worcester's director of rugby was fuming at the complacency which came within a whisker of inflicting an opening day defeat as the favourites for the National One crown lost their cool.

Ben Daly's last-minute try saved Worcester's blushes but Brain could take little from the match after seeing his side out-muscled up front before playing their part in a mass brawl which led to Chris Hall's red card.

"We were complacent," said Brain. "We got bullied up front and all credit to Otley - they got away with it. Because we were getting pushed around and on the back foot, that led to frustration. Our discipline went and we had a man sent off.

"We've had a big, big wake-up call and Otley gave us a decent dose of reality. In the first half we were inept and it was disgraceful."

The only crumb of comfort for Worcester is that they managed to somehow manufacture a second half win after spending most of the first stomping on the self destruct button.

Hall's moment of madness erupted at the end of that half after referee Tom Wrigglesworth had palpably lost control of a niggly affair. Hall ended up on the floor punching away amid the fracas which horrifically saw a ball boy get caught up and crushed against the fence. Battered and bruised he was given the all clear by the doctor at half time but it was a distasteful moment which did both sides no credit whatsoever.

An Otley try after just 23 seconds had set the tone of the match for the visitors. Turnover ball was switched to Wasaile Sovatabua and he danced past a few powder puff challenges to give Otley the perfect start. Simon Binns added the conversion and Worcester had a headache.

Full back Duncan Roke soon personified that state of affairs when, after covering well, he was stamped on the head by Otley's Kris Fullman. Amazingly, though, the prop saw yellow rather than red as we began to see a referee playing a very dangerous game.

A solo try from Roke, two penalties and a conversion from the ice-cool Tommy Hayes had, however, put Worcester in control midway through the half until replacement Craig Gillies was sin-binned and Hall followed him to the bench. By then, Otley were back in touch from Binns' boot and it was his penalty, following Hall's red mist, which saw the home side go into half time level at 13-13.

The Yorkshiremen were soon in front after the restart as Justin Wring powered his way through the midfield before Jason Oakes dived through for a try on 42 minutes. Binns was spot on again as Worcester looked down the barrel.

Hayes, though, brought the Warriors back into the match with a 35-metre penalty and, with 20 minutes left, cut the deficit to one point. That, though, was as good as it got for Worcester until replacement Daly grabbed the ball 15 metres out, burst past two tackles before touching down. In keeping with a bad tempered match, the Australian was then booted in the head after grounding the ball. It was an offence which, unsurprisingly, wasn't spotted by the ref. Hayes added the extra points and Worcester had played their get out of jail card.

"We were awful," added Brain. "There are no excuses. We came here big headed and they gave us a lesson. We played like boys and Otley played like men."

Worcester: Roke 7, O'Leary 3, Officer 5, Murray 5, Garrard 7; NHAYES 8, Swanepoel 6; Windo 7, Hall 3, Lyman 6, Zaltzman 6, Gabey 6, Bates 5, Pfister 7, Evans 6.

Replacements: Brown, Powell 5 (Swanepoel 64), Hinshelwood 6 (Officer 40), Daly 7 (Bates 45), Fortey, Gillies 5 (Zaltzman 25), Evans.

Man of the match: Tommy Hayes - kept his cool unlike others.