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Arundell works his magic as Worcester shoot themselves in the foot

By PA
(Photo by PA)

Worcester collapsed to a heavy defeat in their Gallagher Premiership opener to confirm that a long season awaits on and off the field as London Irish strolled to a 45-14 victory. Facing the prospect of administration due to debts exceeding £25million, the Warriors found no refuge on the pitch at Brentford Community Stadium as they leaked seven tries.

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Their players have still not been paid fully for August and with £6m in tax due, the club face a winding-up court hearing on October 6 while behind the scenes new owners are sought urgently.

Evidence of the financial emergency was seen in last season’s kit still being used, with the jerseys displaying no player names in order to make them more swappable given the limited numbers available.

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Robbed of any pre-season matches by the crisis, Worcester struggled once their promising start ran out of steam, most notably in their breakdown discipline as they lost the first-half penalty count 8-0.

Irish took their chances beautifully but were rarely under pressure and typically Henry Arundell got on the score sheet just a minute after stepping off the bench, his first involvement hacking the ball ahead and the second picking it up to touch down.

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Following a moving minute’s silence in memory of the Queen, who died on Thursday, and a rendition of God Save the King, Worcester attempted to take a month of frustration out on Irish. For a period it worked as they set off like a freight train to force the Exiles into a lengthy period of defence, centre Ollie Lawrence the greatest threat with two strong carries before Jamie Shillcock pounced on an error and escaped down the right touchline.

Another Lawrence run caused problems but when he spilt the ball forward, Irish counter-attacked and several phases later Ollie Hassell-Collins ran across the field to initiate a try finished by Ben Donnell.

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The Exiles led despite being under frequent siege, but they were aided by a favourable penalty count that saw their opponents infringe five times in the opening quarter alone. With Worcester busy shooting themselves in the foot, Irish’s backs produced a precise and high-speed sequence of play to add a second try through Ben White.

Shaky Warriors defence invited Haskell-Collins over for the third that was delivered inside the half-hour mark and when Arundell worked his magic eight minutes after the interval, the bonus point was secure.

Will Joseph capitalised on an error to dart over from close range, but the one-way traffic was finally broken in the 65th minute when replacement hooker Curtis Langdon finished a series of forward drives.

Agustin Creevy restored the order of play but although Worcester appeared to have had the last word through Shillcock, Arundell added his second in injury time.

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O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith' Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith'
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