Leicester needed to win to secure a place in the play-offs for the 12th consecutive year and if they could have picked their opponents, Worcester would not have been at the bottom of the list. The Warriors had lost their previous nine Premiership matches here and had not beaten the Tigers since 2008, but history took a while to repeat itself.
Leicester were without the outside-half Freddie Burns, who has had surgery on the ankle he injured during last weekend’s Champions Cup defeat to Racing 92, while Manu Tuilagi was given the week off to rest a knee strain and Dan Cole was on the bench alongside Ben Youngs.
Aaron Mauger, Leicester’s head coach, said: “We may not risk Manu Tuilagi at Bath next weekend but he will definitely be fit for the play-offs. We have had an emotionally draining few weeks and culminating with the Champions Cup semi-final against Racing 92 and it showed today in what was a patchy performance. We have made the play-offs, though, and that was one of our objectives at the start of the season.”
The hosts spluttered for an hour and with their most likely play-off destination Saracens and an artificial pitch they have yet to take to, the management will treat victory as they would defeat.
Worcester served notice in the opening minute that they regarded the match as rather more than an end-of-season obligation. Their first handling move may have been a portent that they would be more threatening without the ball than with it when Tom Heathcote’s sloppy pass to Tevita Cavubati was fumbled but, as Leicester’s backs pondered their options, the home side’s scrum was driven back five metres into disarray.
Leicester may be in tactical transition but a retreating scrum is not meant to be part of the new order. The indignity threw them and although they led 21-17 at the break, their first try was a gift from the Worcester full-back Chris Pennell, who threw a blind pass to Vereniki Goneva for the wing to touch down in a sixth successive Premiership match, and their second two followed raids.
They were unable to exert sustained pressure with Worcester’s line speed electric and Chris Kirwan forcing turnovers at the breakdown. Had the Warriors been more comfortable in possession, they would have at least remained in front for more than a few minutes at a time. The lead changed hands five times in the opening period with two tries coming in its final three minutes.
The opening period had been sedate. Worcester led by Ryan Mills’s long-range penalty and were in control before Pennell, under no pressure after fielding Mathew Tait’s loose kick, fed Goneva rather than Bryce Heem. Worcester were quickly repaid in kind when Owen Williams’s rushed pass to Leonardo Ghiraldini was spilled by the hooker. Francois Hougaard picked up and weaved his way into a position form where he could give Heem a free run to the line.
Hougaard could do nothing to stop Opeti Fonua from regaining the lead for the home side after the rather large No8 barged his way through the challenge of his opposite number GJ van Velze, who had to go off for repairs. Worcester lost two of their tight five to injuries in the opening 33 minutes, but they remained the more solid and cohesive of the two packs. Leicester had the greater class and threat behind, although the Warriors’ centre Andy Symons had a period either side of the interval when tacklers struggled to bring him down.
Symons scored Worcester’s second try, finishing off a period of pressure, but, as the Warriors looked to be going into the interval ahead, Leicester mounted one final attack, with Williams and Goneva producing a back-of-the-hand pass to find space for Telusa Veainu when none had appeared to be there.
A scrappy game turned into a messy one when the sky turned black and the rain fell heavily. Still Worcester pressed forward, but after Symons went off for 10 minutes following a clash of heads at speed with Sam Harrison, who did not return to the field, the momentum started to shift. The Warriors’ last hurrah was a 25-metre penalty just to the left of the posts. Heathcote, whose short-passing strategy was undermined by his tendency to throw them forward, hooked on to a post.
Leicester secured the try bonus point when the replacement No8 Will Evans was at the end of a driving maul. Moments before, the Tigers, with a new front row, avenged the humiliation of the first scrum. When Williams, who mastered the swirling wind from the tee with five kicks from five, converted a penalty with 12 minutes to go, the play-off position was confirmed.
Worcester should have secured a bonus point through Ryan Lamb after Heem’s vision and if the Warriors are to do more than survive next season, they need to finish what they start.
