Yorkshire Carnegie 17 Worcester Warriors 36
Greene King IPA Championship
Geoff Berkeley reports from Headingley Stadium
IT IS fair to say 2014 has been a topsy-turvy year for Worcester Warriors and their Jekyll and Hyde performance at Headlingley Stadium on Saturday could not have summed it up any better.
Sam Smith was the star of the show as he bagged four tries in the final 40 minutes to steer Warriors to a 15th successive victory.
But while the second half was convincing, the first half brought back memories of Warriors’ struggles at the start of this year as countless mistakes in defence and attack saw them trail 14-0 against an energised Yorkshire outfit.
However, Worcester have come a long way in the past 12 months and their performances in the closing moments of each half epitomised that. Two tries just before the break brought Warriors back into the game before Smith crossed four times – two of those coming in the last five minutes – to finish the year on a high.
But director of rugby Dean Ryan said he hopes those sluggish starts will be a thing of the past as he aims for a successful 2015.
“We are really disappointed as we got it wrong emotionally in that first half hour, which made us have to dig that much deeper,” he said. “Full credit to the lads for the second half as we got 30-odd unanswered points, but we should not be coming back from 14-0 down.
“We lacked real snap and to be fair to Leeds they started in a better place than us and made us have to find a reaction.”
Having got out of the blocks so well against London Scottish last week, Warriors’ fans would have been hoping to see more of the same.
But instead, they witnessed their side get punished for their mistakes in the opening stages as Yorkshire went on the offensive.
Harry Leonard slotted home two penalties inside the first ten minutes before the home side scored the first try through Rob Vickerman.
The centre pounced on a mistake by Chris Pennell who somehow let the ball slip from his grasp after beating Christian Georgiou to it. Leonard failed to land the conversion, but knocked over a penalty on the 28th minute to leave Warriors with it all to do.
The visitors had their chances in the opening periods, but it was not until they reverted to their forward power that they got their reward.
With five minutes to go before the interval, Mat Gilbert finished off a well-rehearsed driving lineout to get Worcester on the board before another catch and drive set up a further score.
This time, the forwards laid the platform before the ball was whipped wide to Pennell who managed to wrestle his way over in the corner.
The two tries just before the break, which closed the gap to 14-12, seemed to turn the match around as Warriors stuck again on the 52nd minute, with Smith going over for his first try.
Despite letting slip a 14-0 lead to fall 17-14 behind, Yorkshire continued to plug away and as time wore on they could still sense an upset.
That became a very strong possibility on the 67th minute when Leonard fired home a penalty after the hosts were held up over the line.
But fortunately for the travelling supporters, Worcester saved their best until last and it was Smith who once again finished in style.
The wing, who scored two late tries against London Scottish last week, dotted down in the corner before racing away for his hat-trick three minutes later. Ignacio Mieres added the extras to make it 29-17 and all but secure victory.
But Smith still had time to bag a fourth as he powered through to score, which Mieres duly converted to complete a thrilling second half comeback.