London Welsh v Worcester - Play-Off Preview
By Mark W-J
April 7 2011
Two games left and two points required to progress to the knockout stages. Three bonus-point wins from our four pool games to-date have put London Welsh on the brink of the play-off semi-finals, but this Saturday we face the team responsible for the only blemish on our record in Pool A - last season’s relegated Premiership club and the favourites for promotion from the Championship, Worcester.
In 24 seasons of league rugby no club has a better win:loss record against us than the Warriors. Although we won the first meeting in what was then Jewson National One (Level Three) in October 1997, they have won every game since - sixteen wins in all, including three this season. Only Exeter (21 from 31) and Bedford (17 from 24) have inflicted more defeats on the Welsh in the league, while of the teams we’ve faced more than once, Bristol, Cornish Pirates, Harlequins, Leeds, London Irish, Northampton and Rotherham have emerged victorious more often that we’ve beaten them. The common thread is that all of these clubs have played Premiership rugby in the last decade - with the exception of the Pirates, who have realistic hopes of changing that detail, if not this year then within the not-too-distant future.
Our back-to-back wins over Bristol in the last fortnight yielded 90 points, including eleven tries, and 35 points for Gordon Ross, who has now amassed 66 points in four games from a try, 17 conversions, eight penalties and a drop goal. We’re the top leading scorers (161) and the joint-top try-scorers (20 - equal with Worcester), but face a Warriors side who have conceded just six tries in four games. Two of those were scored by the Welsh in our last meeting just three weeks ago, including a penalty try - the only one that they’ve conceded in the league this season. The Worcester fans weren’t particularly happy with the appointment of David Rose as the referee that afternoon, but many felt that the decision to award the penalty try was just about the only one he got right all afternoon. There’s no pleasing some people! Interestingly Phil Greening, whose opinion of the standard of officiating is usually enough to make even Sir Alex Ferguson blush, was fulsome in his praise of Mr Rose’s performance, particularly in the way he ‘allowed both teams to play fast, open rugby’.
Worcester are the only team in the two promotion pools who have already confirmed their qualification for the semi-finals, the three points carried-forward as top seeds being augmented by four wins and three try-bonuses to leave them a full 14 points clear of third-placed Nottingham with two games to play. We’re currently nine points clear of Glenn Delaney’s side, and could yet live to regret the try-bonus that they scored in our meeting in round one. While the last two weeks’ games have seen a points-difference swing in our favour of 95 over them, Nottingham visit Bristol this weekend knowing that a big win against opposition who have conceded 23 tries in just four matches could give them a chance of overhauling the Welsh when we visit Meadow Lane on the final weekend.
In Pool B, two home defeats for the top seeds, Bedford, have seen them drop six points behind the Pirates, and only two ahead of Doncaster. They only lost once at home in the first stage of the season - to Worcester, who inflicted a home defeat on all eleven of their rivals - although Donny and Pirates had previously claimed four wins at Goldington Road between them in the last three seasons. As a result, it’s likely that any semi-final - IF we progress at Nottingham’s expense - would be at the Mennaye on May Bank Holiday weekend. Meanwhile in Pool C, Moseley’s double over Esher means that Birmingham Solihull have to win both of their remaining fixtures - against their local rivals and ours - if they are to pull off another great escape. Plymouth Albion are the only one of the four teams who are definitely safe, thereby extending their stay in this league into a 10th successive season.
We earned two points against Worcester in our league meetings in Part One of the season - a losing bonus point at ODP at the beginning of November, and a try-bonus at Sixways just two months ago - and we’re looking for two more points from our remaining two fixtures to ensure that we join them in the semi-finals. A first win in seventeen attempts would be a nice way to settle matters rather than leave a nervous finale at Nottingham next week - but there’s still the possibility of another crack at them over two legs next month. As a great man once said - I have a dream…
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Quote:paddytaf
(Pace, Power, Precise Penetration for our Penultimate Play-Off game for Promotion to the Premiership). PADDYTAF.
Come off it PaddyTaf! You're just taking the P's!
Setting off on the drive down to OPD soon, Hope the motorways are clear. Looking forward to a really good match in excellent conditions.
"C'MON YOU WELSH"conv kick
0-7
conv kick
7-7
half time
conv kick
20-22
final whistle
Edit to correct scores
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:04:10:12:45:29 by Blackheath Welsh.
Final Score LW 20 Warriors 22
Final penalty was missed by Ross!
Deja vu? I've seen it all before
Should still be proud of a great effort by the sound of it though and a bonus point is not to be sniffed at!
LW 20-22 Wor
Ross pen short!
The bonus point virtually guarantees you a Semi Final place, and quite rightly so.
Best of luck against (presumably) the Pirates.
Deja vu? I've seen it all before
In each half we couldn't get our hands on the ball in the opening 10 minutes, and Worcester spent the first five minutes of the second period camped on our line but we somehow survived. Then around the hour mark we suddenly started playing some seriously good rugby and could so easily have snatched it at the death. I was behind the posts at the bowls club end, and I had my hands raised in the air in celebration, but at the last moment the ball drifted agonisingly past the left-hand upright.
Easily the biggest crowd of the season, and I would guess one of the best league crowds we've seen in years. The stand was full, and behind me in the second half people were standing two or three deep.
Cheers again and good luck for the future.
Quote:Nowt to do with nerves - all to do with wind against him so it ended short. Andy Goode wasn't that great off the tee either. BTW the more I see of that guy the more I think he is a serious discredit to himself and the team he plays for. That foul mouthed outburst to his teammates after the first Welsh try would have earned him a two match suspension in another sport (hed the cameras been present of course).Tony Warrior
thank goodness your kicker got "kicker nerves" at the end.
A truly great snatch of the ball by Hudson - one of the tries of the season, surely. Onwards to bundle Nottingham out of the way, and then the semi against Pirates in hopefully sunny Cornwall.
Best of luck in the semi's guys.
Best I've seen this season anywhere, at any level.
Great performance by Welsh, especially in last 10 mins, when Wuss were really rocking.
But the difference, for me, was that Wuss didn't make any errors at the breakdown. We never got the ball off them and had to live off scraps of possession. Their restarts kept putting us under pressure, too, and we couldn't do the same.
Just before FT, when Eerie made a final break down the line near the stand, he was tackled when cutting inside and Goode ripped the ball off him in the tackle to douse the threat. That was the sort of small difference that won Wuss the match.
After Gordon's last minute kick from our half to win the Bedford match a month back, I was feeling quietly confident that he'd get that last kick, which was 10 m nearer, but he seemed to get too far under it and it fell 5m short,a s well as drifting just wide.
Give me a match like that eevery week, please!