Worcester Warriors overwhelmed by Tigers

By Mike Hill
December 22 2002

Worcester gave Leicester a decent contest in the first half until Tigers quality and superior fitness began to tell and they ran out 36 - 9 winners. Five tries and some excellent moves were a good return from a much-changed side to the one that beat Beziers the week before.

The official Powergen choice of man of the match (which I wholeheartedly agree with for once) was Peter Short and he enjoyed a superb game firstly at lock and later in the back row. Short made many powerful runs and he and his back row colleagues kept Worcester on the back foot for most of the game. Even with our three No. 7's missing and Corry leaving the pitch after only 20 minutes the Leicester back row was still far too strong.

Behind the scrum Worcester looked quite dangerous and only some desperate last ditch tackling kept them tryless. The Warriors' outside centre and Scottish International Ben Hinshelwood looked a class act and South African Swanepoel at nine was also impressive. Worcester were let down by the final pass on several occasions and will feel they should have had more than three penalty goals to show for their efforts.

First half tries by Lloyd who hacked on a loose ball to dive over and Chuter from the inevitable driving maul gave Leicester a 12 -9 half time lead. The half ended with Martin Johnson sin binned for killing the ball at a ruck close to the Tigers line. It all looked promising for the visitors only three points behind and a man advantage. Then their world fell apart Tigers quickly scored a penalty and then a second try from a driving maul when Peter Short stormed over.

Worcester's misery was compounded when they had Neil Mason sent to the bin for ten minutes. Ahead and in control Tigers started to turn on the style and Steve Booth and Ollie Smith were making some good breaks only for handling errors to spoil the attack. They got it right in spectacular style when Booth cut loose to feed Ollie who scored with panache. Adam Balding completed the scoring and capped another top class performance.

After the whistle the team and crowd paid tribute to the legend that is Tudor Thomas. For his final game as announcer he was given a standing ovation and the ultimate honour a chant of Tuuudooor, Tuuuudoooor. He has given fifty years of his life to the club as first player and then secretary and if any one person embodies what is special about Leicester Football Club it is Tudor. Welford Road just won't be the same without him.

The draw for the quarter-finals has once again seen us paired with Quins at the Stoop and I hope the team will make a New Year resolution to make it third time lucky and knock them out of the cup for a change.

Merry Christmas to all.