Mills' moment of magic inspires Warriors to victory - The Worcester Observer

Mills' moment of magic inspires Warriors to victory

Worcester Editorial 23rd Feb, 2015 Updated: 19th Oct, 2016   0

Bedford Blues 17 Worcester Warriors 32

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Geoff Berkeley reports from Goldington Road

FOR 73 minutes at Goldington Road, Worcester Warriors appeared to be staring down the barrel at their first defeat since September.




A loose Ryan Mills pass and an Andy Symons fumble not only led to Bedford Blues’ two tries, but also added to a comedy of errors made by Worcester, who trailed 17-0 at half time.

Sam Smith got one back after the break, while Symons fired home two penalties, but the hosts seemed to be hanging on as the clash entered its closing stages.


However, with just seven minutes left on the clock, Mills produced a moment of magic, which turned the match on its head.

The fly half wriggled his way through Blues’ defence to score the decisive try as Sam Betty and Tom Biggs went over late on to complete the comeback.

But this was not enough to gloss over Worcester’s first half display, which director of rugby Dean Ryan described as “horrendous”.

“In some ways we contributed to every point on the day and we had to tough that out,” he said. “We didn’t play very well, we lost our shape and we probably underestimated just how influential that slope would be.

“I think we went wide too early and paid the penalty with the turnovers and intercepts and in a different situation I don’t think we would have got out of jail like we did today.”

Having racked up 15 tries in their last two games, Warriors would have arrived at Goldington Road confident of adding to their tally.

But whether it was the late change which saw James Percival replace Jonathan Thomas, who pulled out sick on the day of the game, or the blustery conditions, Worcester struggled to get going.

Bedford, meanwhile, were rising to the challenge as Jake Sharp got his side off the mark with a well-taken drop goal on the sixth minute.

Mills was the star of the show when Warriors tore apart Rotherham Titans last week, but he became the centre of attention for other reasons in the first half at Bedford.

As Worcester tried to run the ball out of defence, the fly half’s pass was intercepted by Viliami Hakalo who eased through to score under the posts. James Pritchard added the extras.

This should have been a wake-up call for Warriors, but instead it only seemed to add to their anxiety and on the half hour mark things went from bad to worse.

This time, Symons dropped the ball for Hakalo to pick up and pass to Patrick Tapley who raced away and dotted down in the corner.

The home fans could not believe what they were seeing as Pritchard converted it to make it 17-0. And Warriors could have been even further behind at the break as Pritchard went wide from the tee.

The visitors knew they faced an uphill battle to come back into the match, but with the slope going in their favour in the second half they looked to uses it to their advantage.

And they got off to the best possible start as Smith crashed over in the corner after receiving Jonny Arr’s pass.

Symons missed the conversion, but the centre made no mistake with his next two attempts to reduce the deficit to 17-11.

Despite getting scores on the board, Worcester’s struggles did not go away, while tighthead prop Nick Schonert was sin-binned.

But they remained resolute and when Paul Tupai was sin-binned Mills found his moment to strike. The former Gloucester stand-off showed great footwork when he avoided a host of tackles before scoring under the posts. Symons added the extras.

A driving maul then saw Betty power over from close range before Biggs sealed the bonus point try in the last play of the game. Symons converted both.

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