A 14-man Worcester side were left to rue the dismissal of flanker Alafoti Fa’osiliva, which denied them a morale-boosting victory. The Samoan’s sending-off after 62 minutes, for leading with his elbow, gave the Cherry and Whites a timely lifeline and extended the Warriors’ sequence of Premiership outings without a win to six games.
Carl Hogg, the Worcester coach, had little doubt “the red card changed the outcome of the game” after the television match official ruled Fa’osiliva had illegally flattened the Argentine lock Mariano Galarza. First-half tries from Ben Te’o and Cooper Vuna and a spectacular effort from 21-year-old replacement Perry Humphreys might still have seen the hosts safely home, only for final-quarter tries from Matt Scott and Henry Purdy, both converted by Greig Laidlaw, to drag Gloucester level at a stadium where they had not won since 2010.
Gloucester’s modest record on Worcester turf had little bearing on this occasion. This was the first league game on the Warriors’ new artificial pitch, a stretch of green sufficiently flat and manicured to put the cricket square at New Road to shame. The downside was a stadium so dimly lit it resembled an old-school training night on a remote third-team back pitch. When the electronic scoreboard also gave up the ghost it really did feel as if a nearby meter needed feeding. The digital advertising hoardings were comfortably the most luminous thing in the ground, which might have been the subtle intention all along.
What the Warriors badly needed after their sizeable opening weekend defeat to Saracens was a brighter performance on the field. Gloucester looked the sharper initially, Charlie Sharples having a possible try ruled out for not releasing in a tackle just short of the line, but Worcester gradually slowed the game down to a more manageable pace and began to exert some territorial control.
It paid dividends when scrum-half Jonny Arr nipped in behind the defensive line to create a chance out wide gratefully taken by the powerful England squad centre, Te’o. With 31 minutes gone and advantage being played an increasingly confident Worcester scored again, Vuna finishing strongly in the corner despite suspicions of a forward pass in the buildup. Gloucester’s night took another turn for the worse when their barnstorming Welsh back-rower Ross Moriarty was knocked cold and had to be replaced. Losing to Leicester having led 31-7 was clearly a bitter disappointment and basic handling errors compounded their frustration in front of the watching England head coach Eddie Jones.
When their passing clicks they have a backline with enviable pace and elusiveness but the maddening inconsistency that has dogged them for years shows little sign of disappearing. A good angled penalty from Ryan Lamb, to add to his earlier conversion, extended the Warriors’ half-time advantage to nine points and left the visitors with a Malvern-sized hill to climb.
Laidlaw did claw three points back immediately after the break but, despite a concussed Te’o failing to reappear, Worcester did not appear initially flustered. Any sense of complacency, however, disappeared with Fa’osiliva, who will consider himself a touch unfortunate to have been red-carded for simply carrying the ball into contact.
Worcester’s tight forwards did their best to take no notice, making a mess of Gloucester’s scrum on a couple of occasions. Lamb will rue a penalty attempt that bounced away off a post but the athletic Humphreys will long remember his try in the left corner, shrugging off three tacklers en route. Gloucester, though, hit back at the start of the final quarter with a smart try from Scott from Mark Atkinson’s inside ball before conceding a stupid penalty for offside. From dim wattage to dim-witted, so to speak, only for Purdy and Laidlaw to flick the switch back to neutral.
Worcester Willison; Hammond, Olivier, Te’o (Humphreys, h-t), Vuna; Lamb (Heathcote, 62), Arr; Ruskin (Leileimalefaga, 62), Annett (Bregvadze, 64) Johnston (Daniels, 71) O’Callaghan, Barry (Scotland-Williamson, 71) Fa’osilivia, Mama, Dowson (capt).
Tries Te’o, Vuna, Humphreys. Con Lamb. Pens Lamb, Heathcote.
Red card Fa’osilivia 52.
Gloucester Marshall; Sharples, Scott, Twelvetrees (Atkinson, 47), Purdy; B Burns, Laidlaw (capt); Thomas (Orr, 62), Hibbard, Afoa, Savaga, Galarza, Moriarty (Rowan, 32), Kvesic, Morgan.
Tries Scot, Purdy. Cons Laidlaw 2. Pens Laidlaw 3.
Referee L Pearce
.jpg?w=600)
