Saturday, October 14, 2000

WORCESTER Rugby Club continued their 100 per cent start to the season with a 22-3 win over woeful Wakefield but it was hardly the performance of potential champions.

Supporters came to Sixways on Saturday expecting a rollover jackpot but came away feeling the race for the National League Division One crown could be more of a lottery than ever this season.

Worcester never looked likely to lose the match but failed to spark into life in a game more notable for the referee's whistle than anything else.

Sixways' director of coaching Adrian Skeggs made four changes to the victorious side at Coventry last week but it was a unusually low-key response by the players coming in who, on the whole, had games to forget.

Ian Calder replaced Mathew Back at full back while Andrea Moretti and Tony Windo came into the front row at the expense of Neil Lyman and Andrew Lamerton who were rested.

Moretti was guilty in the first half of a number of crooked line-out throws as Worcester began to slip up on the basics. Dave Sims also returned in place of Dan Zaltzman.

"A win is a win" as new boy Richard Jarman pointed out at the end and despite the poor display, the Gold and Blues never looked in danger at any stage of the match.

However, Jarman will just be pleased he was not involved in a game which never lived up to expectations. The home side took the lead after just five minutes when a fine reverse pass by Chris Simpson-Daniel opened up the Wakefield defence to let in Earl Va'a for a well-worked try.

Sateki Tuipulotu slotted home the conversion to put Worcester 7-0 up. A fine start and a good platform for Worcester to build upon you thought but it was almost as if the builders went off for an extended tea break as Wakefield began to build some of their own foundations for the next 15 minutes. The visitors dominated possession and only solid defence prevented them from putting points on the board. Quick thinking from scrum half Simpson-Daniel increased Worcester's lead just after the half hour when he took a tap penalty and dived over the line to score against his old club.

It was a sweet moment for the former Wakefield man who certainly enjoyed the try. Tuipulotu missed the conversion attempt and two minutes before the break, Rob Liley kicked a penalty to bring the Yorkshire side within nine points of the league leaders.

Tuipulotu then missed a penalty on the stroke of half time as Worcester went in 12-3 ahead. The impressive Simpson-Daniel was substituted for tactical reasons during the break, with Ricky Pellow coming on in his place. The switch would have disappointed the England under-21 international, especially with new scrum half, Kiwi Jarman watching on in the stands. It will be interesting to see if Jarman or Simpson-Daniel gets the nod for the Tetley Bitter Cup clash at Mosley on Saturday.

For the record, the second half was even worse than the first period with both sides littering their play with handling errors. Tuipulotu kicked a penalty, Cameron Mather was inexplicably sent to the sin bin on his home debut and Wakefield continued their kamikaze policy of kicking for touch rather than adding to their poultry points tally. Referee Roy Maybank also had a day to forget and even received an ironic round of applause from the Worcester faithful late on when he spotted a Wakefield knock on.

Calder brought hope of a bonus point when he ran through for Worcester's third try but the referee blew for full-time once Tuipulotu had converted.

"We're just not good enough at the moment," bemoaned Mather after the match.

Had second-placed Leeds been watching, they may well have agreed and Moseley, well, they'll be rubbing their hands together on this form.