Saturday, December 3, 2005

WORCESTER'S ill-fated Powergen Cup campaign finally drew to a close as they were over-powered by a much stronger Newport side.

While both teams were without key players, the Dragons still had enough in reserve to make life very difficult for a Warriors team composed mainly of raw youngsters.

Even the return of Tim Collier, the heaviest player in the English top-flight, could not boost a pack that was never able to gain parity with the opposition.

This competition hasn't been kind to Worcester. In October they were pulled apart by Northampton and lost hooker Andre Van Niekerk and centre Dale Rasmussen to injury.

A heavy defeat to Leicester the following week ended any hopes of reaching the quarter-finals and all that was left to play for at Rodney Parade was pride.

While Van Niekerk is still some way from match fitness, Rasmussen has recently returned to the side and he was chosen as captain in Worcester's first-ever competitive encounter with Welsh opposition.

Although the backs failed to string any passes together, Rasmussen did at least mange a terrific tackle on Richard Fussell which stopped a certain second-half try. But by that stage, Warriors had already been ground down by their opponents.

Both of their first two tries came from the sort of positions that Warriors love to attack from rather than defend.

First the scrum drove Worcester over their own goal-line and Adam Black touched down. Then the visitors were penalised for bringing down the ruck, which led to a five-metre line-out.

After securing the ball, flanker Andrew Hall crossed for the second score.

On both occasions the excellent Craig Warlow added conversions to go with an earlier penalty.

Admittedly, Warriors did not have the best of luck in the early stages. Matt Mullan had come into the front row as an 11th hour replacement for Lee Fortey and he was soon joined by another teenage prop, Callum Black, after American Mike MacDonald was taken off to have some treatment for a cut on his head.

The pack looked in disarray and, if Worcester were going to pose a threat, it was probably going to come from one of their two speedsters, Uche Oduoza or Aisea Havili.

Oduoza delighted the crowd with a powerful surging run but he rather spoiled it by hanging on to the ball after he had been dumped on the ground.

But Havili was the class act in the Worcester back line and he put their first points on the board when he picked up the ball inside his own '22' and darted the length of the pitch before scoring in the corner.

At one point, Worcester were within seven points of their opponents, but were unable to build on that momentum.

Any danger was snuffed out either by a resilient Newport defence or, more often than not, a handling error by a Worcester player -- and not just from the youngsters.

Even the introduction of New Zealand flanker Tom Harding could not stir Warriors into action.

The new signing from North Harbour struggled to make an impact in the 30 minutes he was on the field, but it would be unfair to make a judgement until he plays alongside a senior set of forwards.

Worcester can now put this competition behind them and concentrate on their twin assault on Heineken Cup qualification via the Premiership and European Challenge Cup.

Worcester: Lennard (Delport); Havili, Rasmussen, Tucker (Whatling), Oduoza; Brown, Powell; Mullan (Black), Hickie, MacDonald, Collier (Blaze), O'Donaghue, Mason, Tuamoheloa (Harding), Horstmann.

Man-of-the-match: Havili. Attendance: 4,017.