Wuss 'A' team vs Leicester 'A' team @ Sixways


JonW aka Statto
By JonW
September 12 2006

James Brown kicked all of Worcester's points from penalties. Leicester's points came from the boot of Ian Humphreys, and a try from John Murphy.

Worcester 'A'  18-22  Leicester 'A'

This isn’t going to be so much of a match report, more of a timeline of the sequence of events:

 

3 mins – Worcester penalty for Leicester hands in the ruck. James Brown decided (lots of disbelief from the crowd here!!) to kick at goal from inside his own half!! Converted from 51 yards.

Wuss 3-0 Leics

 

9 mins – Another penalty for Worcester in front of the posts, easy for James Brown.

Wuss 6-0 Leics

 

10 mins – The restart landed in Wuss hands, and the Leicester forwards swamped the player, resulting in a Leicester penalty for holding on. Ian Humphreys converts.

Wuss 6-3 Leics

 

12 mins – Leicester penalised for offside. James Brown again decided to kick for the posts from 40 yards, slightly to the right-hand-side of the posts. It was good.

Wuss 9-3 Leics

 

18 Mins – Gavin Quinnell made a break taking 3 Leicester players with him through the centre of the field, from the resulting phase Worcester knocked the ball on. The scrum however was turned by the strong Worcester pack. Then Leicester decided they would turn the Worcester scrum and won the ball back, Lewis Moody made a 20 yard break and subsequently knocked on from a tackle.

 

23 Mins – Alex Grove made a good break through the centre, Worcester were penalised for a knock on from the next phase, though it did appear that Leicester were offside before the tackle was made. The Worcester pack disrupted the Leicester scrum again and won the ball back and knocked on again.

 

26 Mins – Worcester disrupt another Leicester scrum on their 22, Leicester recover the ball well and cleared with a long downfield kick. James Brown took the ball and also kicked long back towards the Leicester backs; the Leicester No.10 eventually controlled the ball after an awful bounce and managed to make a mini-break, narrowly avoiding what would have been a very hard tackle from Gary Trueman who had raced the 50 yards to close him down.

 

28 Mins – Leicester penalty for Worcester hands in the ruck, 15 yards out in front of the posts. Ian Humphreys scores with ease.

Wuss 9-6 Leics

 

30 Mins – Chris Pennell cleared his lines with a very long kick down towards the Leicester goal-line, Leicester picked the ball up and quickly switched the play to the left wing, where Alex Tuilagi jinked in and out of a couple of Worcester defenders, only to knock on (for the 3rd time of the night) when eventually tackled.

 

31 Mins – Lee Fortey taken off, James Tideswell replacing him.

 

32 Mins – A Leicester line-out won comfortably, allowed a sweeping move from left to the right-wing where yet again Tuilagi was finding himself with lots of space. With the try-line only 10 yards away, Tuilagi again knocked one, relieving the pressure on the Worcester backs.

 

34 Mins – Worcester lose a line-out on their own 22. Leics again quickly move the ball across the field over to the left-wing, with a virtual try guaranteed the final pass to Tuilagi was most likely forward but also too low, Tuilagi tried his hardest to catch the pass, but ultimately knocked the ball on whilst diving for the line.

 

36 Mins – Leicester 22 drop out was cheekily kicked along the ground, the unsuspecting Worcester defence was caught flat-footed as Tuilagi regained the ball, juggling with it for 15 yards or so, and then knocked on yet again when he was tackled.

 

37 Mins – Worcester penalty for Leicester hands in the ruck. Virtually on the half-way line, just inside the Leicester half, in front of the posts, James Brown stepped up with supreme confidence and struck the ball through the posts.

Wuss 12-6 Leics

 

38 Mins – From the kick-off the Leicester fly-half broke through the Worcester centre, and attempted a grubber kick down towards the left wing about 22 yards out, Uche slipped as he turned to chase the ball, but fortunately for Worcester the kick was too far and went over the dead ball line before the attacking Leicester wingers were able to catch it.

 

HALF TIME – Worcester ‘A’ 12 – 6 Leicester ‘A’

 

 

42 Mins – Leicester penalty, Worcester offside (I think?). 15 yards in from the touch-line, Ian Humphreys converted again.

Wuss 12-9 Leics

 

45 Mins – Alex Tuilagi substituted for the Leicester No.22.

 

46 Mins – The Leicester fly-half again broke through the Worcester defensive line, but the move was broken down and Leicester knocked on 10 yards short in front of the posts.

Gavin Quinnell replace by Matt Cox.

 

49 Mins – Another break from Ian Humphreys, the ball out to Lewis Moody, and only 5 yards short of the line was tackled very well by James Collins (I think?) and into touch.

 

51 Mins – Worcester had a penalty for a line-out infringement in their own 22, which TC decided to take quickly himself!! The ball was passed out to Uche, and he made a great break through two Leicester players before being tackled, as he went to ground he attempted to pass the ball, the pass unfortunately landed in no-mans land and the Worcester player that recovered the ball was quickly wrapped up by the oncoming Leicester players, they turned him over and quickly spread the play back to the Leicester left-wing. Worcester were caught offside and conceded a penalty 25 yards out, slightly to left of the posts. Ian Humphreys again converted with ease.

Wuss 12-12 Leics

 

TC off, Ben Blackhall on.

 

55 Mins – James Tideswell made a break, from the ruck Worcester were penalised for being offside as James was turned over, a questionable decision; as was made clear by the vocal crowd. Ian Humphreys attempted the kick from 48 yards out, but pulled it to the left of the posts.

 

58 Mins – Worcester make a good break through the Leicester centre. The ball came quickly from right to left and a Leicester player was very offside and appeared to deliberately knock the ball on as a 2 man overlap behind him would surely have scored. Worcester managed to continue to the play with the referee’s advantage and the ball was quickly out to Freeman on the left wing who slid in to the tryline, only to be pushed into touch by a strong defensive tackle. No advantage gained, Worcester penalty. 10 yards in from touch in the right-hand side on the Leicester 22, James Brown again scored a difficult penalty to nudge Worcester back in front.

Wuss 15-12 Leics

 

I think Leicester made a sub here? Possibly Matt Smith off and No.19 on.

 

60 Mins – Leicester break down the right wing and Chris Pennell made a fantastic cover tackle to stop Leicester just short of the line.

Gavin Hickie off, No.17 on.

 

63 Mins – Worcester offside in front of their own posts. Easily kicked by Ian Humphreys.

Wuss 15-15 Leics

 

66 Mins - Will Runciman & Martin Freeman replaced by Tom Dickens and Jamie Lennard.

Leicester kicked a cross-field ball over Uche. The Leicester full-back (John Murphy) and Uche wrestled with each other a little whilst waiting for the ball to come down from high in the sky, when it eventually did, Uche mis-judged and John Murphy easily took the ball to run over the try-line. Conversion was bizarrely given as good by the touch-judges despite it looking wide to the right of the posts.

Wuss 15-22 Leics

 

71 Mins – James Brown breaks straight through the Leicester back line, was eventually hauled down before the 22, by the Leicester No. 12 (Tom Youngs), he didn’t roll away from the tackle, and earned himself a yellow card, whilst giving Worcester the opportunity to reduce the deficit. James Brown again with confidence placed the ball through the posts from 30 yards out, 10 yards in from the right touch-line.

Wuss 18-22 Leics

 

74 Mins – A Leicester line-out in their own half was knocked on, giving Worcester a good opportunity with an attacking scrum. The Worcester scrum was turned and Leicester regained the ball, allowing Ian Humphreys to kick long downfield. The ball landed in Chris Pennell’s arms who tried to run out from the 22 to only get wrapped up by Leicester and concede a scrum.

 

75 Mins – Leicester penalty, Worcester driving up in the scrum, instead of taking the 3 points to virtually guarantee no loss, they chose to go for the line-out. Just short of the Worcester line, it was stolen by Worcester and from the resulting maul, Leicester were penalised for the players encroaching on an uncompleted line-out. With time ticking on, Worcester took a quick penalty, which resulted in a Worcester knock-on.

Callum Black off, Matt Mullan back on – uncontested scrums.

 

80 Mins – Whilst James Brown was being treated for an injury to his elbow, Worcester made a break through Uche Oduoza, as he ran out of space with the Leicester players closing in, he found himself with no support, and ultimately turned the ball over.

 

FINAL SCORE Worcester ‘A’ 18-22 Leicester ‘A’

 

 

An extremely entertaining, fast, free-flowing game. The conditions were wet, so the knock-on count was expected to be high. Alex Tuilagi, without doubt finding the conditions most difficult. There was a lot of kicking, understandably given the conditions and both teams kicked very well. Both fly-halves were superb, with the Leicester fly-half Ian Humphreys just pippng James Brown to MOTM. Leicester undoubtedly had the more experienced side with Lewis Moody, Leon Lloyd, Alex Tuilagi and Brett Deacon playing to name but a few, but the young Worcester players did not look out of place at all. There could very well be a good future for some of the Worcester Academy.

 

My opinions on a select few of the players in action:

 

 

  Click here for match photos