Relegation does not loom above these sides quite as ominously as last season but the Warriors greeted their first victory since Dean Ryan’s departure with an audible sigh of relief. It will not live long in the memory but after two draws in their previous outings at Sixways a fortuitous try from Wynand Olivier and a penalty apiece for Tom Heathcote and Ryan Lamb sealed the win against a disappointing Falcons side.
Had Newcastle held their passes they may well clinched a second away win on the bounce but while Mark Wilson was tireless on the blindside flank, little came off Dean Richards’s team despite prolonged periods of possession. As it was, Joel Hodgson’s 77th-minute penalty trimmed the gap to two points but Newcastle were denied a dramatic comeback when penalised at a scrum late on by the referee, Tom Foley, much to Richards’s annoyance. “At the moment referees are just looking at the outcomes rather than the causes,” he said. “They don’t understand what’s going on at the scrums. They’re making rash decisions which are having an effect on the game. You’ve got young referees who have never been in a scrum in their lives and not refereed to any great level before now.”
The Warriors could not get out of their half for the first 18 minutes but while John Wells has instilled one of the most formidable defences at Newcastle, the attack was the bluntest of instruments. The fly-half Mark Delany could not prize open any telling gaps for his backs and after holding firm the Warriors scored the opening try that had more than an element of slapstick. Sinoti Sinoti, in at scrum-half for Newcastle, flung a woeful pass in Dom Waldouck’s direction. He could not gather the ball and Heathcote gathered and released Olivier for a free run into the right-hand corner.
Heathcote missed the conversion before Delany and Heathcote traded penalties – Worcester’s coming after their fly-half had made the first clean line-break on 40 minutes.
The second half brought more of the same – a litany of errors from both sides – and while Heathcote missed the chance to give Worcester some breathing space from the tee, his replacement, Lamb, did not, slotting over after he had punctured the Newcastle line.
With just over 20 minutes to go Lamb clipped the crossbar with another penalty and soon after Delany notched his second of the afternoon to bring Newcastle back within six. Hodgson then bisected the posts to set up a jittery finish but Worcester, on top at the set-piece throughout, won the late scrum against the head to make sure of a first win of the season and a maiden triumph under Carl Hogg.
“The main thing was we got the win, I thought we showed huge courage. The first 20 minutes they had a lot of possession but a huge tick in the box for team spirit,” Hogg said. “The game wasn’t a classic errors on both sides but the result was paramount. It gets us in a winning mentality and we haven’t been beaten at Sixways.”
Worcester Shillcock; Humphreys, Olivier, Willison, Vuna (Adams, 35); Heathcote (Lamb, 52), Arr; Rapava Ruskin (Leleimalefaga, 63), Annett (Bregvadze, 70), Schonert (Johnston, 70), O’Callaghan, Barry, Fa’osiliva, Kirwan (Cox, 77), Dowson (capt).
Tries Olivier. Pens Heathcote, Lamb.
Newcastle Hammersley; Tait (Agulla, 63), Waldouck, Socino, Sinoti; Delany (Hodgson, 68), Takulua (Young, 46); Vickers (Rogers, 61), Lawson (Sowrey, 61), Welsh (D Wilson, 46), Green, Olmstead (Witty, 61), M Wilson, Welch (capt), Hogg (Temm, 77)
Pens Delany 2, Hodgson.
Referee Tom Foley (RFU). Attendance 6,375.
