Worcester Warriors v London Welsh - Play-Off Preview
By Mark W-J
March 17 2011
What a difference a week makes. London Welsh went into the play-offs on a run of four defeats from our last five league games, the worst record of any of the eight teams in the promotion play-offs. But Saturday’s 48-26 home victory over Nottingham, who had won at ODP only a fortnight previously, suggests that we’re coming into form at exactly the right time, just as Phil Greening had predicted.
This weekend our new-found confidence will be severely tested at Sixways, where we face the promotion favourites, Worcester. There are two schools of thought with regard to facing Richard Hill’s side in the play-offs, particularly given their dominance in Stage One of the league season, in which they won 21 of 22 fixtures, collecting 101 points from a possible 110. The first, proposed by Rotherham Head Coach Andre Bester, is that he would rather meet the Warriors in the pool stage, where the runners-up spot would be enough to earn an away semi-final, expected to be against either Bedford or Cornish Pirates. Thus, by avoiding Worcester at that stage you have a slightly better opportunity to reach the final itself, with all of the associated publicity, and – one would hope – financial rewards. The alternative, put forward by our own Managing Director, John Taylor, is that it would be better to avoid Worcester in the pool stages and instead meet them in the semi-finals, where you have a marginally better chance of beating them in a one-off head-to-head than you might over two legs in the final. Unfortunately JT seems to have overlooked our 15-match losing streak against the Warriors, stretching back thirteen years to their first visit to Richmond in February 1998.
It’s interesting to compare those contrasting perspectives with regard to the relative ambitions of the two clubs. For Rotherham, to be in the final and to renew their rivalry with Worcester – which was so intense in the five years from 1998-2003 that animosity was never far from the surface – would be viewed as success in itself; for Welsh, on the other hand, a one-off win in the semi-final would open the door to a two-legged final versus opposition against whom we would presumably be more confident of claiming an aggregate victory. Furthermore, both points of view emphasise Worcester’s dominance of the Championship this season, with both Bester and Taylor expressing a lack of confidence in overcoming the Warriors in a straight fight. As things have turned out, of course, neither club got their wish, so unless the Warriors spectacularly implode over the next five weeks we will have to beat them in the final if we are to realise our Premiership dream.
But all of that is a long way off yet. While Saturday’s win was a welcome return to form after some stodgy, uninspired performance throughout the bleak mid-winter, the looming spectre of the Premiership’s 13th team on the horizon will strike fear into the hearts of Welsh fans. Our relationship with Cecil Duckworth’s boys began so well, as Andy Currier inspired a 28-13 win at Sixways in October 1997, but the 15 consecutive defeats suggest that they’ve since gained the upper hand. This term we have, at least, gained two bonus points from the 33-29 reverse at ODP in October and four tries in last month’s 39-25 away defeat. Worcester led 32-3 at half-time, and some of their fans suggested that our second-half resurrection was a direct result of Richard Hill’s decision to replace his half-backs, Jonny Arr and Andy Goode, after 50 minutes. While this may have had some bearing, it’s also quite conceivable that our change in fortunes was triggered by the arrival of captain Jon Mills, who was awarded Man of the Match by Sky Sports on Saturday despite playing for only an hour, such is his importance to the cause.
As one would expect from a team which has suffered only one defeat and finished 19 points clear of its nearest rivals, Worcester completed Part One of the season having scored more points (770) and more tries (92) than any other club. Wingers Marcel Garvey and Miles Benjamin were two of the four Championship players to grab 14 tries, while Andy Goode gathered 245 points, comprising eight tries, 44 conversions, 36 penalties, and three drop-goals, all three of which were kicked in the 28-18 win at Bedford in October. Goode has scored almost 1,400 points in ten years in the Premiership (two stints with Leicester either side of an 18 month spell at Saracens), but has scored only 24 top-flight tries, failing to dot down once in his recent two year stint with Brive. His involvement on Saturday is by no means certain after he sustained a broken nose in an altercation with Bristol captain Iain Grieve at the Memorial Stadium on Sunday; Grieve was sent off by referee Dean Richards, while Goode was one of three players sin-binned for their part in the fracas. Fortunately there were occasional outbreaks of rugby, the visitors emerging 44-15 victors, by six tries to two, meaning that they head Pool A by a single point from the Welsh after one round.
At the start of this season it would have been very difficult to find any one of sound mind who was prepared to back any team other than Worcester to earn an immediate return to the Premiership. On the one hand, they didn’t seem to have any realistic rivals for promotion, unlike Bristol last year, who had stiff competition from Exeter, who had spent five or six years putting together the complete package of players, coaches, infrastructure, support and finance. Furthermore, the Chiefs’ triumph in the play-offs was a stark warning that the Championship structure doesn’t necessarily reward the team which is most consistent over an eight or nine month season and that complacency is often the toughest adversary. The Worcester officials and supporters have been quite vocal in their criticism of the play-offs, the suggestion being that they unfairly penalise the strongest team in the league, but you can bet that the players and coaches won’t be distracted and won’t be preparing their excuses just yet. But thirteen years of hurt never stopped me dreaming…
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The team to play Worcester is as follows:
15 Aled Thomas
14 Liam Gibson
13 Paul Mackey
12 Simon Whatling
11 Josh Drauniniu
10 Gordon Ross
9 Nick Runciman
1 Shawn Pittman
2 Saul Nelson
3 Lorne Ward
4 Michael Powell
5 Matt Corker
6 Jon Mills (c)
7 Michael Hills
8 Lee Beach
Impact replacements;
16.Michael Holford 17.Rob Herring 18.Jonathan Fisher 19.Martin Purdy 20.Ben Stevenson. 21.Waisea Luveniyali 22.James Lewis
15 Chris Pennell (c)
14 Marcel Garvey
13 Alex Crockett
12 Dale Rasmussen
11 Miles Benjamin
10 Andy Goode
9 Jonny Arr
1 Matt Mullan
2 Aleki Lutui
3 Tevita Taumoepeau
4 Graham Kitchener
5 Craig Gillies
6 Neil Best
7 James Collins
8 Kai Horstmann
Replacements
16 Chris Fortey
17 Bruce Douglas
18 Greg Rawlinson
19 Adam Balding
20 Ollie Frost
21 Joe Carlisle
22 Alex Grove
SOLD
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:19:12:46:09 by nld.
Worc 0 - 7 LW
Conv missed
Sorry
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:03:19:15:30:34 by Blackheath Welsh.
14 23
19 23
26 23
33 23
40 23
F/t
Bodes well for Bristol at home next Sat and then away on Friday 1st April. Book for that coach now on 07989 784082.
Well done on your ball retention, excellent aggression at the breakdown, aided by a some interpretation of the offside law.
Quote:nld
Superstitious about wearing no 13 perhaps?
You may well be right. It's not the first time this season Paul has worn a number free shirt.
As far as the match was concerned, my pre-match observations were borne out that Benjamin would be problematic as he indeed was. Once he had space in front of him, he was hard to stop. In the first 15 or so minutes had uninterrupted possession on a scale I haven't seen for a very long time - perhaps 95% possession and 85% territory advantage; it was clearly getting Warriors frustrated, and the crowd very silent. Their No 12 Rasmussen was formidable.
The match turning point in my opinion was when Josh picked up his second-half injury; though he soldiered on for a bit, he was no longer as hugely effective as before and unable to switch wings. It may not have helped than Ben Stevenson was also seeing stars for a period and Martin Purdey went off for treatment of a magnificently gory face that even application of a handful of blood capsules could not have achieved; he seemed none the worse for wear when returning some minutes later. It was not however a violent match - at least as the eye from the stand could see - unlike Warriors' previous match which featured 1 red and 3 yellows from one incident.
I thought the retention of possession discipline was very good, and we only kicked upfield under pressure. If we play mean in the other playoffs, and continue to pass tightly and snappily, I am sure we can again beat Nottingham, beat Bristol twice and may have a chance of at least beating Warriors at ODP (though their post-match scrutiny will be very searching as to how they got into such a mess early in this match). Overall a very fine display which perhaps the scoreline does not quite reveal.
see you in your backyard soon.
I do think we played better for longer than our last visit to Sixways but Wuss are a class act and proved they are the team to beat. Bonus points could be crucial and Notts have picked up two in two games and won against Bristol yesterday.