SUCH is life in the Greene King IPA Championship, not even a maximum point 32-16 victory left director of rugby Dean Ryan entirely satisfied.
Worcester Warriors were ahead throughout and never looked like losing against last season’s National One champions Doncaster Knights on Saturday.
Yet Ryan still wanted more from his players, especially after Warriors burst into a 12-0 lead at Castle Park thanks to tries from Ryan Bower and Sam Smith.
“We are still not playing as well as we would like, but we have got the bonus point and that’s as much as we should expect at Doncaster,” he said.
“But we are just frustrated we are unable to get any momentum in games. After a good start, we got sucked back in and you can see there is still a bit of self-doubt creeping in, so we tended to revert back to our powerful scrum and line-out.
“That is understandable because it gives us such ascendancy, but as we have seen in the last two weeks it has been difficult to turn that into points.
“I would have expected us to kick on, but we didn’t today.”
After a nervy start, which saw Mike Williams fluff a great chance to score before Ignacio Mieres went wide from the tee, Warriors opened their account. Although it came from an unlikely source as prop Bower burrowed over from close range after receiving Ben Howard’s pass.
Howard was in impressive form in the early stages and it was his run which set up Worcester’s second try. The full back sped away down the right before offloading to Smith, who finished well in the corner.
Leading 12-0, Warriors had Doncaster exactly where they wanted them, but as the half wore on the hosts steadily got back into it. Mieres managed to cancel out Dougie Flockhart’s penalty, but the hosts finished the first period on the front foot and further reduced their arrears to 15-6 just before the interval thanks to another accurate kick from Flockhart.
Warriors’ forward pack was the difference in the tie, though, and it was a huge scrum, which put the visitors in the ascendancy in the second half. The Knights were penalised and Mieres fired over from the tee.
Doncaster closed the gap with a Flockhart penalty, but almost immediately Warriors scored their third try. After Tom Biggs claimed the restart, the ball was shifted wide and Max Stelling crossed the whitewash. Mieres added the extras.
Still, though, Worcester failed to put the game to bed as Doncaster came back once again. This time, their forwards went on the charge and Jonny Arr was adjudged to have illegally stopped Knights from scoring. The scrum half was sin-binned and Flockhart converted the penalty try, which left the hosts trailing 25-16 with 15 minutes remaining.
Despite going down to 14 men, Warriors responded as Sam Betty touched down after a big drive to the line. Mieres converted to give Worcester further breathing space.
Doncaster continued to fight, but when Flockhart missed his first penalty of the afternoon, their hopes of an upset were dashed as Warriors held on.