Saturday, January 22, 2000

WORCESTER dismissed troubled Waterloo without ever showing the form of a side looking for promotion.

Their 22-12 win was comfortable enough but there was never any chance of repeating their 78-10 victory at Sixways in Nov-ember.

Waterloo are yet another Premiership Two side battling against financial pressures and are a shadow of the side which beat Worcester at Blundell-sands last season.

Half a dozen of their best players have returned to all corners of the globe since the money ran out and officials were left with the choice of either weakening the squad or losing their club.

Yet they tackled manfully on Saturday and showed that passion still runs deep even at struggling clubs.

Their first up tackling was solid, stopping Worcester's plan A and it seemed they forgot about B, C or D.

Tony Yapp edged them in front with two first half penalties which could have been cancelled out had a drop-goal from Anthony Handley and a penalty from Lyndon Griffiths not sailed just wide.

Worcester finally broke down Waterloo on the stroke of half-time when Andy Currier made a blistering break down the middle.

He missed his initial chance to feed Nick Baxter on the wing but stood up long enough for Andrew Higgins to provide the link and allow Baxter to crash over in the corner. Worcester continued their superiority after the break but found Waterloo just as resolute as in the first.

Yapp added his third penalty two minutes after the break before Worcester found another way through.

A quickly-taken penalty saw Rob Myler make the initial damage down the right wing and a superb long-range pass from Yapp gave Baxter room in the 22 and he made no mistake to score his second.

Then came a mini revival from Waterloo which started which a fine break down the blind-side from scrum-half Wayne Morris.

Waterloo earned a line-out yards from Worcester's line and lock Chris Wolfenden shoved his way over the line with the help of his pack.

Alarm bells started to ring just three minute later when centre Phil Graham weaved his way through a crowd of Worcester defenders to score under the posts.

Griffiths' conversion put Waterloo within a converted try of a shock result but four minutes later Yapp calmed the Worcester nerves by slotting his fourth and final penalty.

The victory was uninspiring, workmanlike and full of mistakes but anything less than two points would have spelt a death knell to their championship challenge.

Worcester: Tuipulotu, Myler, Higgins, Currier, Baxter, Yapp, Fenley, Windo (Linnett 57), Richards, Lyman, Denhardt (Sims 64), Raymond, Cockle (Devereux 57), Carter, Jenner. Replacements not used: Caputo, Hughes, Connolly, Martens.

Attendance: 451.