By Griff
December 31 2004

In our last two encounters Irish have dominated possession but not points, although we have taken the honours both times. It has never been comfortable watching. Will this be the time Worcester finally turn the tables ? Home to the Warriors back in November Irish never really looked in trouble, 25 - 15 is convincing enough although it doesn't really show the complete domination of the game the home side had. Worcester simply weren't allowed to play any sort of game, we stole a lot of lineout and even held our own in the scrum. Indiscipline from the visitors and a fiery home defence told the story. The biggest call of the day had to be the final-minute penalty try awarded by Chris White for what looked like a Worcester knock-on. This was incredibly frustrating for the Irish support as they had been denied a similar score in their previous home match when Leeds, despite having had two men yellow carded in as many minutes, managed to hold the Exiles for a much longer penatly-filled period to win the match.

We all looked forward to our return match, the Warriors' followers showed themselves to be fine rugby supporters and were promising a real welcome. Then Fate stepped in and handed us a Powergen match at Sixways before the year was out.

I'm afraid I only listened to the webcast in December but it sounded a tough affair. With only two penalties scroed (both by Irish) in the first half the match finished 7 - 9 with the only home points coming, surprisingly, from a last-minute penalty try.

Reports seem to agree that the Irish defence had, yet again, stopped the Warriors from playing their game. Some huge hits and brisk gap-closing showed the ZP newboys the difference between the top-flight and ND1. Not that they didn't measure-up, they gave as good as they got and held Irish to the two Tofty penalties and a lst-gasp Mike Catt drop-goal.

Their score, however, did smack of concellation. With pretty-much their first serious foray into Irish territory, deep into injury time, the Warriors got a penalty which they elected to scrum. From a big shove Irish heads popped-up. Expecting a reset scrum, just about everyone was amazed to see the ref scamper under the posts. Having seen the effort Gloucester had to put in against Leicester that same day to gain such a score you could be justified in being confused. The fact that the score didn't affect the result probably has a lot to do with it.

So, the final showdown, with Irish 2 - 0 ahead. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a forgone conclusion. Unless you've seen Irish play recently. There has been a worrying lack of tries for some time now and the lads almost seem to have stopped even going for them, taking a drop-goal instead. With some of the finest backs in the country the supporters were kind of hoping for a little more ambition.

Worcester, on the other hand, have learned steadily as they've gone on. After a spanking at Welford Road (something we can all sypathise with) they'll be keen to put in a decent showing. They backs do look dangerous and their forwards are a well-drilled muscle-machine.

So, it comes down to, firstly, the two defences - Irish seem to have the upper hand so far. If they both fire as well as they can it'll be up to the forwards to give the backs a platform, both sides do well here, most notably Worcester. Then it's up to the back-lines to produce some magic.

It's going to be close. Both my head and my heart say Irish by a couple but it could easily go any way at all...