After a proper battle royale in the first forty, Worcester Warriors turned on the afterburners and blitzed Cambridge in the second half as it turned into a romp in the sun at Sixways.
Matt Everard wasn’t happy with what he saw from his side in the opening half hour, saying “I saw so much physicality – we ran really hard for each other, we were full of fire, with some big scramble tackles, and we had some big goal line defensive sets; but we were there too often and we need to be really calm and focus on doing our job. I loved the effort and the physicality but were more disciplined in the second half when we only gave away two penalties and that helped swing it our way.”
Warriors had gone ahead in the 5th minute, Juan Gonzalez intercepting on the Cambridge 22 for an easy run in, which was converted by Will Reed. Cambridge had the nouse – and the audacity, as it turned out – to hit back, with Ben Currie going over from a winning line out. Jimmy Thompson converted, then nudged the visitors into the lead for a whole 3 minutes with a 40 metre penalty. Hallam Chapman restored Warriors’ lead but Reed was wayward off the tee.
There was a flurry of yellow cards just before the break, with both Warriors props sin binned for foul play and Eli Caven and Otu Mausia following them to the bin for deliberate knock- ons as they tried to stem the tide. But Tim Anstee saw his side further ahead at the break – converted by Reed – and from there on in it was one-way traffic from the restart.
However hard Cambridge tried, they couldn’t prevent a flood of tries, two by Roma Zheng, and one each from James Short and Reed himself. Another Cambridge yellow card for Ben Currie, last ditch on the line, didn’t help the visitors cause.
Lloyd Williams added another, Louis Brown got himself on the scores heet, as did Alfie Garside. Williams added his second, ditto Reed and the fly half finished with 8 out of 12 off the tee.
Cambridge captain Ben Adams could’ve hoped for a better outcome – at least on the scoreboard – as he made his 150th appearance in his club colours. “It was a good first half, and a tough second half. They’re a class outfit. We just couldn’t match them and they exploited us in few areas in the second half. It’s been the story of our season – locking horns until half time and then chasing shadows after the break. It’s something we need to get much, much better at. The 3 yellows put us down to 12 men at one point and that’s something you just can’t get away with against a side with aspirations to the Prem.”
Teams
Worcester Warriors
Brown 8, Gonzalez 8 (A Garside 7), Short 7, Taylor 7 (Preen 7), Zheng 8, Reed 9 , J Garside 7 (Ll Williams 8); Miell 7(Balmain), Wallis 7 (Haynes), Hoyt 7 (Challenger), Chapman, 7 Joussain 7 (Bokenham), Nkwocha 7 (Ndimande), Anstee 7, Kvesic 8 (C)
Cambridge
Currie 7, Green 6 (Thorne) , Reweti 7 (Rokodrava 6), Sorrell 7, Caven 6, Mausia 5 (Thompson HIA), Thompson 7 (Allen 7); Ellwood 6 (Masoe), Doorey-Palmer 6 (Plunkett 6), Walker 6 (Maka 6) McCay 6 (Loggenberg 6) Baxter 6, Fulford 7 (McKay HIA), Eckersley 7 (Mills 6), Adams (C) 6
Scorers
Worcester Warriors
Tries – Gonzalez 5, Chapman 28, Anstee 39, Zheng 41, 48, Short 43, Reed 50, 79, Ll Williams 63, 74, Brown 68, A Garside 73
Conversions – Reed 5, 40, 41, 43, 51, 63, 74, 80
Cambridge
Try – Currie 10
Conversion – Thompson 20
Penalty – Thompson 25
Attendance 6,399
Referee – Andy Wigley