London Welsh v Worcester Preview

By Mark W-J
November 4 2010

Nearly seven years since our last meeting, London Welsh renew acquaintances with Worcester this Sunday at ODP. The two clubs were promoted along with Leeds and Rugby Lions in 1998, and while the others have experienced promotions and relegations we’ve remained here ever since. If we’re to end our 13-year stint at this level, then Worcester, the ‘Premiership’s 13th team’, are the side to beat.

Worcester are widely viewed as one of the success stories of the league structure in England – and were so long before their eventual ascendance to the Premiership. Although they were formed 14 years before London Welsh, in 1871, they were very much a ‘junior’ club in the West Midlands, barely appearing on the radar of local senior sides such as Moseley and Gloucester. Upon the dawn of league rugby in 1987, they were placed in Midlands 2 West, dropping to North Midlands 1 two years later after finishing bottom of the eleven clubs with one win and a draw. From there, however, they won six promotions in nine seasons, before spending five years perfecting their push for the top flight. By the time our paths crossed for the first time, on 25th October 1997 in Jewson National One, Sixways was already being described as ‘palatial’, even though the capacity was ‘only’ about 4,000; the crowd of 2,700 that afternoon was the biggest to have witnessed the Welsh in the league at that time, and the attendance of 2,600 for the return the following February is still the biggest seen at ODP for a league match.

Of course, on that autumn afternoon thirteen years ago we shocked the home crowd with a 28-13 victory, courtesy of two tries from Andy Currier, one from Martin Giraud, and two conversions, two penalties and a drop-goal from Craig Raymond. Unfortunately, we haven’t beaten them since, a run of 13 consecutive defeats meaning that Worcester have comfortably the best win:loss ratio against Welsh of all of the 60 clubs whom we’ve played more than once in 24 years of league rugby. At one point they were responsible for our heaviest league defeats both home and away – 53-7 at ODP in October 2002 and 51-3 at Sixways in December 2000. For the first 40 minutes of that game in Richmond they were almost flawless, building-up a 43-0 lead at the interval. In that opening period they scored six tries, and gave away just two penalties, although the second did result in the dismissal of South African scrum-half Werner Swanepoel for a couple of stamps on the head of Florent Rossigneux. Yet such was their dominance that they played without a scrum-half for 20 minutes before sacrificing a back-row forward, and still emerged 10-7 ‘winners’ in a game of fifteen v fourteen.

Three of the current London Welsh squad have spent time at Worcester, although none for a particularly long or distinguished time. Paul Sampson made five appearances (one start) in 2004-05, scoring a solitary try on his debut against Leicester; Simon Whatling joined the following year and made 13 appearances (six starts) over two seasons, also scoring his only try against the Tigers; while Nick Runciman made just seven appearances (four starts) between 2005-08, his single try coming against Newcastle. Moving in the opposite direction have been two players who would arguably feature in a ‘Best London Welsh XV of the professional era’. The aforementioned Andy Currier left us in December 1999, having scored 50 tries in just 72 appearances, including 36 from 57 in the league, but the Warriors faithful never saw the best of the former Great Britain RL cap due to injuries which ended his career after just seven appearances for his new employers. Tim Collier, on the other hand, was an instant success at Worcester, signing on the eve of their Premiership debut in August 2004. When he joined us from Rugby Lions in the summer of 2002, Tim was viewed by many supporters as lazy and indisciplined, but after 39 games over two years here he left as our reigning Player of the Year. Nonetheless, the reaction from the Sixways faithful was identical to that which he’d received in Richmond; yet again, however, he won over the doubters as he forged an all-English second row partnership with Craig Gillies which was hailed by many as the best in the Premiership.

After six years in the top flight, Worcester were relegated at the end of last season, and consequently kicked-off the new campaign as strong favourites for promotion (play-offs notwithstanding!). But although the opening eight games were won they were struggling to put teams away and to pick-up bonus points, so their defeat at home to Cornish Pirates a fortnight ago was perhaps not unexpected. While many followers of the Championship were pleased to see the Premiership’s 13th team ^TMbeaten, it’s worth remembering that for most of us this is no reflection on the Warriors themselves. The inequality in funding means that Worcester – and indeed Bristol – receive more money from Premier Rugby than Exeter do, so it’s a dislike of the umbrella organisation and the politics of the Premiership rather than their representatives in the Championship which is at the heart of much of the perceived anti-Worcester bias. Equally, the Chiefs’ success in the opening rounds of the Premiership has opened the eyes of many to the strength of the second tier, and as a result many people would like to see another Championship side given a chance to fight it out with the big-boys – again, not anti-Worcester but pro-minnows. History shows that we’ve got enough of a challenge on our plates on Sunday without winding them up any further!

Posted by: The Dragons\\\' Den (IP Logged)

Date: 04/11/2010 08:51

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