Worcester Succumb To 7-Try Tigers

WorcesterHome
By Ian Birks
December 30 2004

The Christmas fixture at Welford Road saw Leicester Tigers take on premiership newcomers, Worcester. Unfortunately, for the travelling Warriors, Leicester were fired up and ready to pile on the misery in this season of good will.

Leicester Tigers took the game by 50 – 7 in a seven tries to one drubbing, including a penalty try in the first half plus tries from Neil Back, Andy Goode, Daryl Gibson, Geordan Murphy, Harry Ellis and Dan Hipkiss. Six converstions and a penalty from the boot of Goode added to the visitor’s pain.

The first points of the day came from Goode after just 6 minutes when Tigers were awarded a kickable penalty.

Worcester’s defence held out against Tiger’s attacks until a lineout-catch and drive resulted in the inevitable Back try.

The Warriors doubled their efforts and despite being heavily out-gunned in the scrum, held their own for most of the rest of the first half; then the cracks started to appear.

Leicester found themselves camped on the Worcester 5m line for 10 minutes or more, the Warriors defending their lines magnificently as the Tigers went over the white-wash only to be held up. But the constant pressure began to tell and after a few penalties, stand-in referee Rob Debney went under the posts. This was the turning point for Worcester.

Within a minute of the restart, Tigers capitalised on some poor Worcester passing to allow Back to link up with Gibson who ran through the non-existent defence to score.

Not content with the first half scoreline, Goode shimmied and dummied his way through Worcester territory untouched to bring up the bonus points before the end of the first period of play.

The second half was no easier for the visiting Warriors; seven minutes into the half, Murphy chased his own chip ahead from inside his own half to ground the ball in the corner. Goode added the extras from out wide.

Worcester showed determination to get centre, Truemen in under the posts, but that converted try was all the visitors were destined to have for their efforts.

Two further tries from Ellis and Hipkiss gave Leicester their final tally of 50 points and seven tries.

Despite all of their best efforts, Worcester clearly have much to learn about premiership rugby; their first line defence is solid but one breached the cover is sadly lacking. Up against the likes of White, Rowntree, Chuter and Morris, their scrum could not compete.

Having said that, there is much that the Warriors can take out of the game; defensive play against the 5m scrum was excellent and, in my opinion, the penalty try decision was somewhat harsh.

With Wasps failing to secure a bonus, Leicester now have a nine point cushion at the top of the premiership. Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, Northampton’s narrow victory over London Irish lifted our East Midlands neighbours off the foot of the table, swapping places with Worcester.

Final Score Leicester Tigers 50, Worcester Wariors 7.

Teams:

Leicester: Murphy, Rabeni, Smith, Gibson, Vesty, Goode, Bemand, Rowntree, Chuter, White, M. Johnson, L. Deacon, W. Johnson, Back, Corry.
Replacements: Hipkiss , Cornwell, Ellis, Morris, Buckland, Kay, B. Deacon.

Worcester: Delport, Pieters, Hinshelwood, Trueman, Sampson, Brown, Cole, Windo, van Niekerk, Horsman, Collier, Gillies, Hickey, Sanderson, MacLeod-Henderson.
Replacements: Hayes, Fortey, Hall, Murphy, Vaili, Powell, Roke.

Official Attendance: 16,815

Ref: R Debney (RFU).