Worcester 67 Orrell 13

IF you wanted one game which summed up the reasons for Worcester Rugby Club's puzzling inconsistencies you would be hard-pressed to find a better example than on Saturday.

Orrell - National One's second worst team - came to Sixways fighting desperately to avoid the drop and, to their credit, gave a gutsy display of counter attacking rugby.

However, guts and pride can only take you so far in professional sport - the rest has to come from talent and the ability to perform week in, week out.

That is the key to how National One will be won and Leeds have been the example of that since their defeat at Worcester back in September.

They have matched their second halves with their firsts consistently without needing a kick up the backside at half-time.

Orrell led 13-10 at the break after Worcester had served up some of the worst rugby seen by their supporters who backed them so tremendously at Leeds.

The visitors deserved the plaudits for taking advantage of Worcester's malaise and went in front after a Chris Bentley try, a David Slemen conversion and two penalties from the fly half.

However, their defence looked so frail that after Spencer Bromley's fourth minute try, you awaited an avalanche of tries. It didn't come in the first half at least and Orrell simply sat back and gave Worcester the puzzles to solve.

Sateki Tuipulotu's stoppage time touch down brought the Gold'n'Blues within three points but quite where referee David Sainsbury had shopped for his four minutes of injury time is anyone's guess.

Now if Worcester had played with the same sluggishness in the second half, you could put it down to them simply not being good enough.

You could accept that they will finish second best because that is what they have been. Cue the contradiction.

Worcester began the second period with the pace and power supporters know they are capable of and re-took the lead within one minute and seven seconds.

Rudi Keil went in on the left after quick thinking from Tony Yapp and the floodgates began to unhinge. Dan Zaltzman, Gavin Webster, Nick Baxter (2), Cameron Mather, Tuipulotu, Earl Va'a and Ricky Pellow then compounded Orrell's misery as Worcester notched up 11 tries for their record league score in this campaign.

Tuipulotu's try was particularly spectacular with the Tongan diving full length over the line.

Unfortunately, in keeping with a Worcester performance - the spectacular was followed by frustration as, in his desire to turn on the style, he pulled a muscle and had to be replaced.

At the end, news filtered through of leaders Leeds' bonus point win at Birmingham & Solihull and the fervour which greeted the second half try bonanza was put into perspective.

Sighs of if onlys and what ifs filled the stadium but the reality was that Worcester had just illustrated perfectly why they look likely to miss out on promotion this season.

Coach Adrian Skeggs reiterated the criticism of their Jekyll and Hyde nature after the match. If anything, that has been the only constant seen at Sixways this season.

Worcester: Tuipulotu (Pellow 70); Murdoch, Barrow, Keil (Va'a 51), Bromley (Baxter 40); Yapp, Jarman; Windo (Collins 63), Moretti (Hall 40), Lyman, Sims, Zaltzman (Webster 50), Evans (Mather 51), Carter, Fryday.