Worcester Warriors 15 Sale Sharks 29
Amlin Challenge Cup
Geoff Berkeley reports from Sixways
THE AMLIN Challenge Cup seemed to come at the right time for Worcester Warriors after struggling to hit the ground running in the Aviva Premiership.
But on Saturday’s first half showing at Sixways the European competition has given director of rugby Dean Ryan more concerns than selection headaches ahead of the club’s league encounter against Exeter Chiefs this weekend.
Sale Sharks struck three times as Worcester, who have yet to pick up a win this season, found themselves 24-3 behind at the interval.
Despite a second half rally, which included tries from Alex Grove and Mike Williams, Ryan slammed his side’s performance.
“I thought we were really slow out of the blocks and we were dominated in the drive and the collision, which is a concern for us,” he said.
“When you have got that score-line to chase it makes the other decisions more difficult. I am not going to pretend the second half has cheered me up about that because it is easy when the games gone to behave in a way that demonstrates some emotions.
“But it is more difficult to demonstrate that from the beginning and we are not getting that right, which is disappointing and we compounded that with some poor decisions.
“We have a responsibility to the club and its supporters to demonstrate something we really care about, but at the moment we are saying it but we are not demonstrating it on the field.”
Paul Warwick’s 7th minute penalty was as a result of one of only a few forays into Sale’s half as Worcester struggled to make any ground.
The Sharks, meanwhile, enjoyed copious amounts of possession in the early stages as Danny Cipriani opened the scoring before the fly half provided the killer pass for the visitors’ first try. After Mark Cueto expertly span off a tackle to set his side on the attack, Cipriani flung the ball out-wide to Rob Miller who burst through to score.
Worcester were also unable to deal with the opposition’s forward pack as new recruit Mariano Galarza saw yellow card. And referee Andrew McMenemy’s next job was to award Sale a penalty try, which Cipriani converted.
Dwayne Peel was central to the Sharks’ attacking intent and the scrum half capped off a dominant first half display when he scampered over the whitewash.
If Warriors’ day could not get any worse the heavens then opened when the players ran out for the second period.
But it actually appeared to wake Worcester up as they came storming back after Sam Tuitupou was sent to the sin-bin.
With the rain lashing down Warriors hit back with two tries in six minutes. Firstly, Grove collected Paul Warwick’s long pass to score before a powerful driving maul saw Williams over the try-line. Warwick added the extras as Worcester closed the gap to within nine points at 24-15.
But Warriors’ hopes of a miraculous comeback were quashed on the hour mark when Mark Easter powered over.
Worcester defended resiliently in the final 20 minutes, while Agustin Creevy provided a spark when the hooker entered the fray.
But the much-improved second half was still not enough to bring Warriors winless run to an end ahead of their return to Premiership action.