Warriors win war at dark Sixways
Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:03
The Worcester Warriors made it to their first European Challenge Cup final, as the lights literally went out for the Newcastle Falcons at Sixways on Friday.
The home side ground their way to a 31-16 victory with a dogged effort that will have pleased the 6795 crowd. They will now meet the winner of the other semifinal, between Bath and Sale Sharks, in next month's Final.
A brace from Sam Tuitupou helped his side on the way to a comprehensive victory.
But it was the visitors started well and it took them seven minutes for their early pressure to be converted to points. Tom May stepped up to slot a drop-goal and open the scoring
But that lead was short lived as Worcester came screaming back into the match through a try from Marcel Garvey.
The home wing picked up the loose ball after Jamie Noon felt the full weight of a crunching tackle from opposite number Dale Rasmussen. That was all the invitation Garvey needed and he darted beyond the Falcons defence for a score converted by Shane Drahm
The home side were denied their second try of the TMO, Jim Yuille, who ruled Mathew Powell's try illegal for a knock on just as he was to ground the ball.
But Worcester had the but between their teeth and it wasn't long before their New Zealand centre Tuitupou powered over for a try under the posts that was converted by Drahm.
The day got worse for Falcons boss Steve Bates, who had to watch star centre Noon helped from the field nursing what looked like a recurrence of his left ankle injury.
But Worcester were in no mood to be charitable and the Falcons problems were compounded by an inability to take their chances.
Try as they might, they could not breach the well drilled home defence before the interval and had to settle for a Wilkinson penalty to make the score 14-6 at the break.
Replacement Thomas Woods smashed his way over for a late score that built on their first half lead, and Tuitupou finished off the rout with a 76th minute score.
A floodlight failure after the break delayed the match by ten minutes, but the Falcons could not find any further inspiration, slumping to their eight straight defeat of the season, despite Brent Wilson's last gasp consolation score.
The scorers:
For Worcester Warriors:
Tries: Garvey, Tuitupou 2, Wood
Cons: Drahm 4
Pen: Drahm
For Newcastle Falcons:
Try: Wilson
Con: Wilkinson
Pens: Wilkinson 2
DG: May
Yellow card: Greg Rawlinson (Worcester, 60 - professional foul, killing the ball)
The teams:
Worcester Warriors: 15 Thinus Delport, 14 Marcel Garvey, 13 Dale Rasmussen, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Miles Benjamin, 10 Shane Drahm, 9 Matt
Powell, 8 Kai Horstmann, 7 Pat Sanderson (c), 6 Drew Hickey, 5 Craig Gillies, 4 Greg Rawlinson, 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 2 Aleki Lutui, 1 Tony Windo.
Replacements: 16 Shaun Ruwers, 17 Matt Mullan, 18 Will Bowley, 19 Tom Wood, 20 Jonny Arr, 21 Joe Carlisle, 22 Rico Gear.
Newcastle Falcons: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Tom May, 13 Jamie Noon, 12 Toby Flood, 11 John Rudd, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 James Grindal, 8 Phil Dowson (c), 7 Ben Woods, 6 Andy Buist, 5 Mark Sorenson, 4 Andy Perry, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Matt Thompson, 1 Micky Ward.
Replacements: 16 Andy Long, 17 Jon Golding, 18 Geoff Parling, 19 Russell Winter, 20 Brent Wilson, 21 Lee Dickson, 22 Tim Visser.
Referee: Peter Allan (Scotland)
