Warriors 16 Ospreys 47

6:29pm Sunday 28th October 2007

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WORCESTER Warriors were taught a rugby lesson by a classy Ospreys outfit who soared to a 47-16 victory in the EDF Energy Cup Pool C' opener at Sixways.

The reigning Magners League champions ran in seven tries as they out-classed the hapless Warriors, who are still without a competitive victory this season.

Wales stars Shane Williams and Lee Byrne crossed over twice, while fellow internationals Nikki Walker, Sonny Parker and Mike Phillips were also on the scoresheet for last year's beaten finalists.

Although Ospreys, who had a dazzling array of international talent at their disposal, were no doubt a quality opponent, Warriors let themselves down again with far too many missed tackles and awful distribution from the break-downs.

It was rare that an Ospreys' man was stopped by the first tackler he encountered, while the home backs were regularly stretching for passes or trying to pick the ball up off their bootlaces.

With just 18 seconds on the clock, the visitors forced a penalty 45 metres out in front of the posts, which fly-half James Hook narrowly missed, while Warriors centre Dale Rasmussen soon needed to make a last-ditch tackle to prevent a try.

The home side enjoyed the upper hand in the early set-piece battles but, whenever the ball was moved along the back-line, the handling was poor and the errors were frequent with the receivers hardly ever taking possession at pace.

In the 11th minute, Ospreys' dominance told and Byrne burst through a weak Mark Tucker tackle for the game's opening score. The excellent Hook added the extra points.

Live-wire wing Williams came close to scoring, only to be thwarted by Loki Crichton's try-saving tackle.

But, just a minute later, more poor tackling from Marcel Garvey and Shane Drahm saw opposite winger Nikki Walker go over for the second Ospreys' try.

The visitors turned the ball over on the right-hand side of the pitch and it was quickly spread to Walker who ghosted past his markers to claim five points. Hook was again on target.

With 22 minutes gone, Crichton kicked for the corner from a penalty. From the resulting line-out, Ospreys were hit for collapsing the maul, Warriors took the scrum and the ball was worked to Rasmussen who crashed towards the line. The home fans were cheering as it appeared the Samoan centre had scored but, after consultation with the TMO, the try was chalked off.

From the five-metre scrum that followed, Gavin Quinnell dragged several defenders to the line but could not ground the ball and it was turned over in contact to allow Ospreys to clear their lines.

Following a decent period of pressure, Warriors opened their account five minutes before the break.

The visitors infringed at the breakdown and Warriors looked to get the ball out to South African wing Thinus Delport. He was held up short of the line, but referee Nigel Owens bought play back for a penalty in front of the posts and Drahm made no mistake.

The home side were soon pegged back, though, when Williams escaped Delport's clutches to dive over in the corner and Hook split the posts from the touchline.

Drahm made the score 21-6 at the break with the last kick of the half.

Calf injury victim Pat Sanderson was replaced at the interval by Kai Horstmann, who added impetus to the hosts' challenge.

Drahm made it 21-9 after number eight Filo Tiatia was penalised for deliberately lying on the wrong side of a ruck to kill Warriors' possession - an offence which earnt the Ospreys' man 10 minutes in the sin-bin.

Some poor handling saw Walker knock-on with the try-line beckoning to spurn a chance for Ospreys' bonus-point score.

However, the South Wales side didn't have to wait long for that luxury.

Despite the man advantage, Warriors conceded again when, after a surging run up field by Walker, Ospreys got the ball to Parker who barged over. Hook once more slotted the conversion.

Scrum-half Ryan Powell, whose distribution was poor throughout the game, was replaced by Matt Powell just after the hour mark and the new man added some impetus at the breakdown with a box kick that Walker had to run into touch.

Worcester won the line-out but Ospreys cleared their lines from replacement fly-half James Brown's grubber kick.

Second-row and wannabe winger Craig Gillies handed the home team a life-line when he skilfully fielded Brown's intelligent cross-field kick to crash over in the corner. Brown then nailed the touchline conversion.

Quinnell's last action of the match before being replaced by Will Bowley was a knock-on within range of the try-line.

It didn't take Ospreys long to regain the initiative, though, as Williams bagged his second and his side's fifth try.

The home side disintegrated, conceding two more tries in the final minutes of the game.

Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips burst onto a line-out tap-down to score then Byrne was the beneficiary from some great running down the left flank by Alun Wyn Jones.

Shaun Connor, who replaced the immaculate Hook, added the extra points on both occasions.