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Scrappy but we'll take it

Motm
By Leipziger January 7 2008
The Falcons grafted out a scrappy win over relegation-threatened Worcester at Kingston Park yesterday, with a team almost unchanged from the previous week at Saracens but barely recognisable from the performance on the pitch. The Warriors won the try-count 2-0 but ultimately Jonny Wilkinson’s boot pulled us through.

Lets be honest – after last week’s shock win, would anybody have been surprised if we had gone and lost at home to a team 11th in the league?  It would’ve been classic Falcons, but fortunately that’s not how it turned out.

 

A family matter meant Jamie Noon pulled out of the team before kick-off, being replaced by Tim Visser and Geoff Parling taking the captain’s armband.  The Falcons attacked early on with Tom May chipping over the away defence but the ball going straight out of play.  The returning Samoan fly-half Loki Crichton also missed a penalty from near halfway for Worcester.

 

James Grindal ignored three players on the overlap and came inside in the quest for a try which would ultimately prove fruitless, and Ben Woods was brought down by a high tackle in front of the posts.  Referee Rob Debney ignored the offence, one of many poor decisions during the game.

 

The Falcons were the first on the scoresheet after eleven minutes with Wilkinson kicking an easy penalty.  We then lost a lineout in the left corner, and after regaining possession came right and Mathew Tait’s pass to May went into the crowd, a good chance going begging.

 

However the Falcons were dominating the first half hour, and when winger Miles Benjamin knocked on in Worcester’s 22, Toby Flood looked to chip over the line from the scrum but the referee brought the play back.

 

Coming up to the half hour, the visitors finally got a foothold in our 22, and after a few minutes of attacking Benjamin went over on the left, Crichton missing the conversion.

 

With Flood being asked to perform more kicking duties than before, he knocked a penalty to the corner and after mauling forward, the Falcons passed the ball across the backline looking for gaps but knocked-on.  We had the last laugh of the first half though through a penalty by Wilkinson after Worcester had entered a ruck from the wrong side.

 

Wilkinson extended the lead early in the second half before Flood missed a snap drop goal attempt, and then another penalty attempt gave the touch judges much to ponder as neither moved for about 30 seconds, finally deciding that it had missed.

 

The second half was more even possession-wise, Tait missing a tackle on the right and Visser having to make a try-saving tackle in front of goal.  John Rudd then took out Rico Gear after the All Black had chipped over him, the referee declining to give the winger a yellow card but moving the penalty further forward (?).

 

It was Gear himself who scored the second try of the afternoon on the left, Crichton’s conversion giving Worcester a three-point lead heading towards the hour.  Looking to get us back into the lead, Flood kicked and chased from our half but was tripped, the referee incredibly ignoring that and giving us a penalty in the Worcester half for a later offence, and the score was equalised 12-12.

 

Considering his earlier try-saving tackle, Visser looked like he was trying to trip a Worcester player yards from the line on the left (and not doing a great job of it), and though we survived initially Worcester came right and looked like they had scored, but for the scoring pass being forward.  The 7,000+ people at KP breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

 

With the visitors in the ascendancy and the Falcons struggling to clear, it was against the run of play that Wilkinson kicked a drop goal eight minutes from time for a 15-12 lead.  Worcester looked set to score again on the right, but were put into touch at the last second.

 

The result was not brilliant, however as was mentioned afterwards an ugly win is better than a pretty defeat.  We have now closed the gap on fourth place to a manageable five points, although it’d still take a brave person to bet on us finishing in the top half of the table for the first time since 2002.

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