Saturday, April 1, 2006

WORCESTER Warriors blew away the memories of last week's dismal display against Saracens with an excellent all-round performance at Franklins Gardens which booked them a place in the semi- finals of the European Challenge Cup.

John Brain's team will now make the short trip down the M5 to face Gloucester at Kingsholm later this month, knowing a coveted place in the Heineken Cup next season is now just two victories away.

Worcester ran in five tries, including a hat-trick for man-of-the-match Aisea Havili, in what head coach Anthony Eddy described as their best performance of the season so far.

Warriors played throughout with the sort of commitment and urgency which was sadly lacking in the Premiership defeat at Saracens and showed once again just what standards they are capable of achieving when they can maintain discipline and structure for the full 80 minutes.

But it was Northampton who got the first points of the afternoon with a try by flanker Paul Tupai on 13 minutes.

Worcester, however, were unfazed and replied by dominating possession for most of the first-half.

It took a further 14 minutes of consistent pressure in the Northampton `22' for the score to change, but Worcester were patient and continued to chip away at the home defence until a gap opened for centre Thomas Lombard to touch down under the posts.

Shane Drahm added the conversion and the increased momentum kick-started a thrilling 13 minutes of top quality, high-scoring rugby.

Bruce Reihana regained the lead for Saints on 31 minutes before a sublime series of moves from Worcester saw Havili touch down for the first of his three tries.

Kai Horstmann secured possession for Worcester at the re-start and put fellow back-row forward Siaosi Vaili into space before quick, flat-passing down the back-line gave right-wing Havili a chance to accelerate past the Northampton defence to score.

Drahm then missed the conversion and Worcester's lead proved to be short-lived as the Saints' full-back Reihana immediately followed up with a converted try of his own directly from the re-start.

In recent matches this would have left the Warriors down-hearted and down-beat, but they struck back once more with a second Havili try to take a 15-17 lead down the tunnel at half-time.

Northampton started the second-half strongly as sustained pressure on Worcester's line saw replacement hooker Chris Fortey sent to the sin-bin and gave Paul Tupai his second score of the afternoon.

Despite being down to 14 players, Worcester's confidence in their own ability was riding high and a flash of inspired play from Drahm regained them the lead.

A grubber kick through from the former Northampton fly-half bounced just out of reach for Thomas Lombard but landed sweetly for fellow centre Dale Rasmussen to run in under the posts.

Drahm then slotted through the conversion to give Worcester a four-point lead over his old club.

Too often the standard of play drops off in the final quarter but this match was thrilling through to the last.

Drahm added a penalty to stretch the lead before replacement prop Mike Macdonald stole the ball on the Warriors line and released Havili for Worcester's fifth try and his hat-trick score.

But Northampton refused to give up the chance of a Heineken Cup spot next season and fought to the final whistle.

Worcester's lead was reduced as Darren Fox went over for the home side's fourth try in injury time and, despite a late yellow-card for Johnny Taumoheloa, Worcester hung on to gain themselves a place in the final four.

Warriors: Delport; Havili, Rasmussen, Lombard, Trueman; Drahm, Powell; Windo (MacDonald (61mins), Van Niekerk (C Fortey 40mins), Taumoepeau (L Fortey 85mins), Murphy (Blaze 74mins), Gillies, Vaili (L Fortey 55-61mins) (Taumoheloa 74mins), Sanderson (capt), Horstmann.

Warriors man-of-the-match: Aisea Havili

Attendance: 9,531.