Friday, January 20, 2006

AN excellent start to the second-half led Worcester Warriors to a four-try bonus point victory over Montpellier and gave them a passage through into the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup.

The maximum points haul gave Worcester top spot in Group Five and put a significant margin between them and second-placed Connacht who lost out 28-24 in Catania.

At times the Warriors played excellent rugby, but the first-half was a typical display of recent performances by the Warriors.

They took a seventh minute advantage thanks to a penalty from Shane Drahm and then the fly-half made the most of the sin-binning of Montpellier prop Jermaine Ballocco to add a converted try for a 10-3 lead.

The Warriors took their foot off the gas though, and the home side crept back to 6-10 before Italian referee Carlo Damasco showed open-side flanker Jonny Tuamoheloa a yellow card on 30 minutes for persistent infringement.

During his absence, Worcester gave away 12 points to give Montpellier the lead for the first time. A penalty try after numerous collapsed scrums was followed by an excellent cross field kick from fly-half David Aucagne which sailed into the hands of full-back David Bortolussi for try number two and an 18-10 half-time lead.

Only a victory would do for Worcester and they emerged from the break revitalised.

Whatever was said by the coaching duo of John Brain and Anthony Eddy in the dressing room obviously worked.

Tuamoheloa soon made amends for his earlier indiscretion by powering over from the back of a 20-metre rolling maul to grab the Warriors' second try.

Drahm converted to put them just one point behind and for the next 10 minutes the Warriors looked a different side.

Wing Gary Trueman failed to secure solid possession after being outnumbered under a clearance kick but the bobbling ball was scooped up by James Brown who enjoyed a decent game in the unfamiliar role of full-back.

Brown collected his own kick before passing off to former French international centre Thomas Lombard who powered in under the posts. Drahm slotted through another kick to give Worcester an 18-24 lead.

Worcester could not manage to keep the tempo up for the remainder of the match though and as Montpellier crept back with a penalty French tempers were starting to fray.

First Montpellier second row Clement Baiocco and then Warriors' wing Mark Tucker were sent to the sin-bin and it took the ever-impressive lock Craig Gillies to restore order and secure victory.

He snatched two successive line-out balls out of the hands of his opposite number to gain the Warriors a 15-metre throw-in and replacement flanker Siaosi Vaili powered over for the fourth try, the victory and the vital bonus point.

WORCESTER: James Brown; Mark Tucker, Dale Rasmussen, Thomas Lombard, Gary Trueman; Shane Drahm, Andy Gomarsall; Drew Hickey, Jonny Tuamoheloa (Siaosi Vaili 70), Kai Horst-mann, Craig Gillies, Phil Murphy (Ed O'Donohue 62), Tevita Taumoepeau, Chris Fortey, Tony Windo (C) (Lee Fortey 67).

REFEREE: Carlo Damasco (Italy).

SCORERS: Montpellier -- Penalty try, David Bortolussi try, David Aucagne three penalties, one coversion. Worcester -- Jonny Tuamoheloa try, Thomas Lombard try, Siaosi Vaili try, Shane Drahm try, one penalty, four conversions.