Moseley 10 Worcester Warriors 50
Greene King IPA Championship
Geoff Berkeley reports from Billesley Common
AS WORCESTER Warriors ruthlessly dispatched Moseley on Saturday it seemed difficult to even contemplate how they only managed to put three tries past their local rivals earlier this season.
Although Worcester claimed victory that day thanks to a brace from Charlie Mulchrone, it hardly filled supporters with much confidence for the rest of the campaign.
Since then, though, the Sixways side have been in impressive form – racking up 17 successive victories, with their latest coming at Billesley Common last weekend.
Sam Betty bagged a hat-trick in a one-sided first half, which ended 40-5, before tries from Max Stelling and Richard de Carpentier followed after the break to complete an emphatic win.
This was also their most convincing scoreline of the season and demonstrated to director of rugby Dean Ryan that his side had come a long way.
“We knew we needed to get off to a fast start and we did that as the game was effectively over after the first 30 minutes,” Ryan said. “We then kept our discipline in the second half, so I am pretty pleased.
“We are really happy with this group as we’re miles better than where we were five or six weeks ago when all we were doing was throwing our hands up in the air. We get answers now and just move on with the game.”
In stark contrast to their previous league meeting in September, Warriors came storming out of the blocks and quickly put the game out of their opponents’ reach.
Firstly, Chris Pennell collected Andy Symons’ pass to score before Betty got on a back of a driving maul to record his first try, which Symons converted.
Moseley bounced back with a try from Sam Brown, but Worcester then opened up a 19-5 lead. Pennell returned the favour for Symons as he darted through and offloaded to the centre who stretched out and touched down.
Warriors were not at their fluent best as they notably struggled at the lineout. But they still managed to secure the bonus point before the interval, with Betty powering over for his second on the 33rd minute.
Moseley, meanwhile, had been causing the hosts problems, but their hopes of clawing themselves back into the match suffered a big blow when Mike Powell saw yellow.
Worcester then took full advantage as Betty completed his hat-trick before Max Stelling eased over after Sam Smith broke down the right and fed the ball inside.
Symons added the extras to leave Moseley with a mountain to climb in the second half.
That task was made even greater four minutes after the break when Stelling rounded Anthony Carter before dotting down in the corner.
And Warriors looked like scoring more as Ryan Mills, Symons and Stelling searched for another opening.
But Moseley battled on and managed to get the greater share of possession in the second period. This pressure eventually told as captain Jonathan Thomas was sin-binned before Jack Lea smashed his way over.
However, it was Worcester who had the last word as they scored their eighth and final try when De Carpentier burrowed over late on.
The victory briefly moved Warriors to the top of the table before Bristol produce a superb fight-back to beat Yorkshire Carnegie 29-28 on Sunday.