By Chris Chaplin
November 7 2005

The curse of Friday night fixtures, white shirts and orange gloves joined with Maybanks’ whistle and Shane Drahm’s boot to bring Tigers their first domestic defeat of the season. On a cold and breezy night at Sixways Worcester Warriors at last secured a win over a makeshift Leicester Tigers built on a top class display from the home side’s forwards who dominated the scrummage for most of this rather lack lustre encounter and which had been presaged by the Tigers’ team bus taking a wrong turn and becoming bogged down in the morass that surrounded the Worcestershire ground after several days of rain.

Ignominiously the players reportedly had to wade through water and mud to escape – not an auspicious start.

The Worcester faithful were understandably ecstatic at the their victory but they will have to play more than ten man rugby if they are to fulfil their ambitions which still seem beset by an unfounded paranoia about survival.

The Tigers pack took the field shorn of White, Rowntree, Morris, Louis Deacon, Shane Jennings, Martin Corry, Lewis Moody and Henry Tuilagi, all absent through international demands, injury or suspension and it showed with the tight five under severe pressure from the off as one of the Premiership’s best packs took control.

This gave stand in scrum half and skipper Austin Healey poor ball with which to work and saw Ross Broadfoot, who started in preference to Andy Goode, on the back foot in the opening half, during which he also missed a straightforward penalty chance and the conversion of the game’s only try following yet another penalty which saw Tigers take a line out close in with good ball collection by Kay leading to a routinely taken push over try for young Will Skinner, looking for all the world like a young Neil Back.

If tigers were under pressure at the scrum at least their lineout was functioning well although referee Roy Maybank determined that Tigers played a quarter of the game with just one lock as first Ben Kay collected his third Yellow Card in as many starts for punching the excellent Craig Gilles who’s display of histrionics after Kay challenged him led to the out of sorts World Cup winner giving vent to his frustrations by punching his opposite number.

James Hamilton was then later singled out for a ten minute break for the self same type of technical infringement as players from both sides had been engaged in since the off and quite why the big Tiger was the unlucky one to get the Yellow Card will remain another Maybank mystery.

Truth to tell Worcester only ever looked likely to score a try through their forwards where veteran Tony Windo had a stand out game and was deservedly voted Man of The Match.

Given that their back division was pretty much at full strength with Gomersall and Drahm at half back and Lombard and Ben Hinshelwood in the centre their lack of penetration was woeful as they crabbed across the pitch and were snuffed out with ease by the Tigers’ drift defence, which put in a bravura performance even without the presence of their ringmeister Daryl Gibson, also absent through injury.

Once again it was clear that the Tigers’ back division with and without Gibson are two very different propositions as when ball was gathered Hipkiss rarely managed to cross the gain line and on one of the rare occasions that he did he lacked the strength to shrug off a poor challenge from the Warriors’ defender.

As the second half started without any changes by Tigers, Pat Howard resolutely leaving Goode, Smith and Morris warming the bench, it seemed clear that the new pragmatism that top four is good enough and an away losing bonus is of itself a result held sway.

Eventually though when it looked as if even that meagre prize was in danger of being denied the visitors Andy Goode and then Darren Morris were drafted into the fray.

The effect was immediate with Goode’s siege gun boot repeatedly pegging the home side back into their 22 and the considerable presence of Morris solidifying the hitherto blancmange scrummage.

Suddenly Tigers looked galvanized and as a Warriors, supporter sat in front of me said “thank God you didn’t start with this team”.

Still though and in spite of putting the Warriors under extreme pressure Tigers lacked the ball carriers to take the ball up and attack after attack was repulsed by the home side as Tigers, back division missed Gibson’s ability to straighten the line and by the time Ollie Smith arrived, perforce following an injury to Leon Lloyd who’ entreaties to be replaced were initially ignored, it was too late.

It was an evening lacking any real spark of invention or talent with the pragmatic boot of first Drahm and then Goode holding sway. The one moment of real skill being from Tom Varndell, who was otherwise left with Alex Tuilagi bereft of attacking opportunities on the wings to do tackling practice, when he collected a wayward kick on the half way line, chipped the ball over the advancing defender and then collected the bobbling pill one handed before being ushered into touch with support arriving too late.

A last throw was mounted by Tigers and rather typically of the evening’s events lamely ended with an accidental off side by the Tigers bringing the attack to a faltering end.

The Warriors supporters left euphoric at their triumph, the travelling support shrugged their shoulders in the spirit of the new pragmatism that prevails in the brave new world of rugby and made their way to the buses and muddy byways that would take them to their cars and homes and I hope spared a wish that the Tigers’ team bus had by then been extricated from the mire with rather more success than had Tigers’ players been able to escape from being the latest victims of a Warriors Friday night ambush.