Saturday, September 11, 1999.

IN TERMS of sporting mis-matches Worcester against Rugby proved to be Mike Tyson versus Willie Carson.

The home side pulverised the willing but limited visitors and a bigger winning margin than the 73-0 scoreline would not have flattered Worcester.

Rugby rarely broke into Worcester's '22' never mind their try-line and their poor line-outs and ball retention left the Warwickshire club with an afternoon of tackling practise.

Worcester are still fine tuning their own team towards a promotion push in Allied Dunbar Premiership Two and a confidence-boosting thrashing of relegation fodder will help their cause.

But as a contest it proved sparse entertainment for a healthy crowd especially as five of the tries came directly from line-outs.

Lock Steve Lloyd almost started the avalanche after just 85 seconds only to drop the ball over the line. Within minutes, however, Worcester were ahead with a penalty try as the Rugby scrum collapsed on the line.

The forwards continued to dominate with Chris Raymond and Tony Windo scoring from line-outs.

Tackles

Centre Andrew Higgins then latched onto a miss-pass from Tony Yapp and shrugged off two tackles to race under the posts.

Higgins added a second moments after the restart, again showing pace and power after support from Jim Jenner and scrum-half Bruce Fenley.

The Worcester forwards then took control once more and twice forced their way over from line-outs -- this time Neil Lyman and Jim Jenner emer-ged with the ball.

Replacement scrum-half Ben Harvey then scuttled round the back of a scrum for number eight and then scored a superb solo effort with a side-step and sprint from the half-way line.

Rugby then made a complete hash of their own '22' drop-out and the quick thinking Yapp kicked the ball over the line before diving on to it.

Yapp was also in form with the boot, kicking nine out of eleven conversions to end with a personal points tally of 23.

Prop Mark Linnett had the final word scoring from yet another line-out, but Worcester are unlikely to face such weak opposition again this season.

Worcester: Hughes; Baxter (Myler 63), Higgins, Connolly (McLaughlin 71), Walker; Yapp, Fenley (Harvey 63); Lyman (Linnett 54), Richards (Ball 40), Windo, Lloyd (Sims 40), Raymond, Cockle (Orgee 54), Carter, Jenner.

Attendance: 2,400.