RUGBY'S top flight might be at least another season away for Worcester but three of their players have already started to rub shoulders with the likes of Lomu, Campese and Cullen.

Nick Baxter, Jim Jenner and Ben Harvey had to forfeit the northern lights of Wakefield for the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

It started with an unforgettable opening parade in front of 110,000 people before they proudly pulled on an England shirt to take on the world's best.

Victories over Tonga and Kenya were dulled with defeat against Western Samoa, but a 50-7 drubbing of Trindad and Tobago set up a quarter-final showdown with Australia.

Things then started to go wrong with Harvey forced to sit the game out with a chest injury and England were soundly beaten 49-14.

So the trio were forced to become part of the 20,000 crowd who watched New Zealand claim gold by beating Fiji in the final.

''The whole thing was amazing, to represent your country was a great feeling, but I was a bit nervous before the first game,'' said Baxter who scored six tries in the tournament.

''I've gone from Kings Norton to the Commonwealth Games -- it's crazy the way things turn out.

''The rugby was a different standard all together and even at 5pm we were playing in 80 per cent humidity which took a while getting used to.

''The game itself was twice as quick, I had never played at such a pace with players just wanging balls out wide. I was absolutely knackered.''

Jenner got a kick out of just wandering past some of rugby's biggest names in the village.

''I would quietly look at them through the corner of my eye but when it came to the game you just thought about how we would play the game,'' he said.

''On the pitch you were just aware all the opposition were good and that one mistake would cost points.

''It wasn't until I was watching the final that I was able to relax and come to terms with it all.

''And watching the rest of the games on television back home it was tremendous to think I had been part of it.''

It might be called the friendly games but David Campese led some harsh criticism of the English who were attacked for not sending their strongest squad.

No doubt England's late arrival meant they were not as acclimatised as other squads and they also missed out on a warm-up tournament in Singapore.

And, as Baxter pointed out, few of England's World Cup winning sevens team were known before they were crowned at Murrayfield.

''The selectors had a problem with first division players and an extra week in the heat could have made all the difference,'' added Baxter. We still did ourselves proud to get to the quarter finals, that's hardly disgracing yourself.''

Monday, October 5, 1998.