7:02pm Sunday 31st January 2010
By Tom Guest
IT may well be one of the oldest cliches in sport, but Worcester Warriors can now ‘concentrate on the league’ after a woeful performance at Kingsholm saw their LV= Cup hopes all but ended by local rivals Gloucester.
Although the coaching staff will no doubt talk about going all out for qualification from the pool stages while there is still a mathematical chance, deep down they will admit all they have left to focus on is avoiding the drop from the Guinness Premiership. Again.
The Sixways side showed their unerring ability to shoot themselves in the foot by completely butchering the few scoring chances they created as the hosts, pretty terrible themselves, easily claimed victory.
With both sides needing a win to keep their hopes alive in the tournament, a decent game was in the offing, but the two teams served up a diabolical spectacle.
The home side claimed victory courtesy of tries from the impressive Freddie Burns and flanker Akapusi Qera — in tandem with seven points from the boot of Welsh stand-off Nicky Robinson — while Worcester replied with a late consolation score from Chris Pennell.
Despite recalling his big guns for the derby clash, Mike Ruddock will have been desperately disappointed with such a toothless display and the Sixways director of rugby will be keen to consign this game to history.
Early in the game, Gloucester’s returning Italian international Marco Bortalami nearly picked off Aleki Lutui’s first throw-in, but the ball went forward off his hand allowing Chris Latham to clear to touch.
However, from the line-out, Craig Gillies was hit for accidental off-side and Robinson pumped the penalty to the 22. Prop Olivier Sourgens was then hit for not rolling away and Warriors conceded another penalty, which was again booted to the corner.
Gloucester looked to probe the visitors’ defence through Lesley Vainikolo’s strong running, but lost position when Robinson knocked-on. Referee Leighton Hodges brought play back, though, as there had been no advantage and, this time, the hosts kicked for goal with Robinson adding the three points.
Sam Tuitupou’s bulldozing run took Warriors up to the Gloucester try-line, but hesitant passing saw the chance evaporate.
In need of a try-scoring bonus to keep their qualification hopes alive, Gloucester began throwing the ball around, trying to keep play going at all times. This care-free approach paid off with the ball being carried deep into the Worcester 22, before centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu sold a dummy and the ball was recycled to young full-back Burns, who dived over in the corner. Robinson added the extras.
As Gloucester attacked again, debut-making flanker Chris Cracknell entered a ruck at the side, but Robinson pulled the resultant penalty across the face of the posts.
Following a string of petty second-half infringements by the visitors — and with Gloucester camped on the Worcester line — Cracknell tested the referee’s patience once too often by slowing the play and was sent to the sin-bin. Robinson lobbed the penalty into touch, but Worcester managed to steal possession back and avert the danger.
Worcester’s ineptitude was highlighted by the way they wasted one of their few second-half attacking platforms. A penalty was kicked to the Gloucester 22, quick off-the-top ball was fired to Tuitupou, who promptly got confused with Dale Rasmussen and ran into the same gap to be penalised for crossing.
Rico Gear was the next Warrior to waste a good try-scoring opportunity, having the ball stripped from his hands as he threatened to break through the last line of defence.
The second Gloucester try followed another harem-scarem passage of play as the Worcester defence was dragged from one side to the other, before flanker Qera barrelled over. Robinson’s conversion made it 17-0.
Warriors were fast descending into a shambles with passes going astray, balls being fumbled and aimless kicks being charged down. So short of ideas were the visitors, their sole tactic seemed to be to give the ball to Latham, who would boot it as far away from their 22 as possible.
When it came, Worcester’s score had an element of luck about it. Sanderson fired a pass at replacement hooker Chris Fortey, who knew little about it, but the ball cannoned off his hands and down the line to Alex Grove, who sent Pennell sliding over in the corner.
After the final whistle, Ruddock conducted a 20-minute on-field de-brief with his coaching staff. The content of that meeting remained ‘in-house’ but, suffice to say, things are looking pretty gloomy for the club at the moment.
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