WHAT has become clear over these opening weeks of the Greene King IPA Championship is that expectations are high at Sixways.
Worcester Warriors’ 55-16 victory over Nottingham saw them rack up nine tries, including a blistering hat trick from wing Tom Biggs. It was also their third successive win as they moved up to second in the league.
But the victory still could not overshadow the amount of mistakes made by Warriors throughout Saturday’s contest, which also saw Nottingham take an early lead.
“To get 50-odd points on the board is a good outcome, but we are still frustrated,” head coach Carl Hogg said.
“We have got lots to work on. We are aware of that and we have got to keep driving ourselves on if we want to get better.
“We have to challenge ourselves to make better decisions, execute things better and be more clinical within the game.
“Yes, we want to play with a little bit more freedom and express ourselves but we have got a responsibility to look after the ball and we did not do that in the first half.
“The players are just as frustrated as the coaches are, but the key thing is what we do now in training to take forward into the game against Rotherham next weekend.”
Warriors looked completely out of sorts in the opening stages and soon went behind. Will Maisey kicked the ball through for Ed Styles to touch down, with Maisey adding the extras.
Worcester seemed stunned and Nottingham could have extended their lead, but Maisey’s next attempt at the posts drifted wide.
The hosts then suffered a further blow when Mike Williams had to be carried off the field after a big hit left the flanker concussed.
It also caused a ten minute delay to proceedings, but Worcester still failed to compose themselves. Warriors did, however, get a much-needed breakthrough. Biggs intercepted a pass before sprinting almost the length of the field to score.
Warriors then added another five minutes, with Max Stelling darting through after receiving Andy Symons’ offload.
Fly half Tiff Eden, who was making his first competitive start, was struggling to settle, though, as he missed the chance to put four further points on the board.
Despite all Warriors’ misplaced kicks, handling errors and tame tackles in the opening period, they still managed to finish it off in style.
Firstly, Jonny Arr collected Ben Howard’s pass to go in under the posts, which Eden simply converted, before Biggs scored a contender for try of the season. The wing picked the ball up inside his half before weaving his way through Nottingham’s defence to touch down in the corner.
This was also the last play of the half as Warriors ended it leading 22-10, but they still failed to look entirely comfortable even when the visitors went down to 13 men.
In fact, Nottingham cut back the deficit, while Tom Freeman was in the sin-bin with Maisey adding two penalties either side of the yellow card.
But Warriors eventually got off the mark when a driving maul saw Val Rapava Ruskin power over.
The away side were struggling to cope under pressure and when they lost Tim Vickers for a high tackle on Biggs the writing was on the wall.
This incident also led to a penalty try, which Mieres dispatched before Worcester ran riot in the final ten minutes. Sam Smith and Stelling both crossed the whitewash before Biggs completed the rout and his hat-trick with a well-taken try at the death.