Saturday, October 29, 2005

SLOPPY passing and disjointed play led to a scrappy and frustrating victory for the Worcester Warriors in their second European Challenge Cup group match.

Worcester should have started as favourites against Amatori Catania following their victory over Montpellier last weekend, but the Sicilians obviously hadn't read the script as they put Worcester under pressure from the first whistle.

Catania were heavily beaten by Connacht the previous weekend and have lost seven of their past eight matches, but they played with confidence and pressurised the Warriors' line for the opening five minutes.

Once Worcester had begun to control the set-piece they dominated possession for the rest of the first-half, denying the home side any real chance of putting together any decent passages of play.

It was the pack's superior scrummaging which led to both of Worcester's first-half tries. Tight-head prop Tevita Taumoepeau was the first to cross the line on 12 minutes after a five-metre scrum on the left and a series of drives from the base of the ruck.

The second score was also started from five metres out as number eight Kai Horstmann picked up at the base and burst through two tackles to stretch out to the line.

James Brown, making his first start after picking up a knee injury against London Irish last month, converted to make it two out of two on his return in the number ten jersey.

The second-half appeared to start far more positively as Worcester, presumably reeling from a dressing down at the break, attacked immediately from the re-start.

Drew Hickey, who captained the Warriors in the absence of Pat Sanderson, stole the ball back from Catania and centre Mark Tucker eagerly crossed for try number three. Brown missed the conversion, but Worcester had a 19-point lead and 38 minutes remaining and should easily have managed another try and the bonus point.

It wasn't to be, though, as two stupid errors brought the home side back into the match.

Worcester full-back Nicholas Le Roux attempted an ambitious horizontal kick on 46 minutes in an attempt to open up the game, but instead the ball bounced straight into the hands of Catania left-wing and captain Benjamin de Jager who ran 40 metres to dive-in under the posts. Fly-half Barry Irving converted to make it 19-7.

Worcester were getting more and more frustrated at their lack of opportunities and, when they gave the ball away at the base of a five-metre scrum on 77 minutes, it summed up the afternoon as de Jager ran the length of the pitch for his side's second score.

Once again Irving was on target with the kick and Worcester were left anxiously defending throughout injury time as Catania got rather close to an unexpected victory.

Warriors: Le Roux; Oduoza, Tucker, Trueman, Delport; Br-own (Drahm 72), Powell (Gom-arsall 62); Sparks (MacDonald 55), Chris Fortey (Lee Fortey 71), Taumoepeau, Blaze (Murphy 55), Gillies, Vaili (Tuamoheloa 68), Hickey, Horstmann. Replacement (not used): Simon Whatling.