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New Signing: Mike Worsley
By The Prof June 17 2003
Mike Worsley was part of the England squad that toured to New Zealand in the summer of 2003 but he only came on as a late substitute against the New Zealand Maori in England’s 9-23 win before being sent to join England’s second string tour in Canada and America.
Name: Michael Anthony Worsley Mike Worsley
Position: Prop
Date of Birth: 01/12/76
Place of Birth: Warrington
School: St Ambrose College
Previous Teams: West Park, Orrell, Bristol, London Irish
Height: 6' 0"(1.82m)
Weight: 17st 3lb (109.31kg)
Representative Honours: England Schools, England U21, England U23, England A, England (2 caps)
International Debut: 09/03/03 against Italy
Signed for: 3 years (2003/4 – 2005/6 seasons)

We all remember the break made by Jon Dawson against the Natal Sharks in 2002/3 and this probably shows how rare it has been for one of our props to carry the ball. With Bruce Starr leaving we are rather devoid of any ball carrying props and hopefully this is a role that Mike Worsley might play. This will also take some of the pressure off Ace Tiatia and Tani Fuga who have been doing a lot of the hard yards recently.

At school, St Ambrose College, he was regarded as the best player the school had produced, he was selected for England Schools and scored a try in a televised match against Scotland at Twickenham in 1995. Bt 1997 he had progressed to the England U21 team, had played against New Zealand, toured Australia and moved from playing for Orrell to play for Bristol.

He will already know some of our players old and new because he played for England in the Six Nations and he also played against Keogh, Willis and Dunne when London Irish played against the Leinster in a pre-season friendly before the 2002/3 season, he scored a try from a rolling maul in the 50th minute.

Having been in the same team as Jase for England he said "He is a strong bloke. There are guys who are equally as strong but he has experience. He's been around since 1990 and in the Italy game he had twice as many caps as the next most capped man. He quite simply has never let England down and is completely dependable."

On average he scores a try every eight to ten games and hopefully he will bring something extra to our hard scrimmaging and highly successful front row that already includes the likes of Jason Leonard, Tani Fuga, Laurent Gomez, Jon Dawson, James Hayter and Ace Tiatia (although Ace is becoming more and more of an out and out blind side these days).

It has been reported that he was disappointed with the front row rotation system that London Irish used. Hopefully Quins will be able to give him a longer run in the front row.

With ball carrying hookers, second rows, flankers and with the new scrum halfs who are likely to bring another facet to our game the inclusion of Mike Worsley should bring another attacking option to the team.

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