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New Skivington era at Gloucester enjoys convincing Premiership start against 14-man Worcester

By PA
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Worcester full-back Melani Nanai was red-carded only 18 minutes into Warriors’ Gallagher Premiership return as Gloucester ran in six tries on their way to a 44-15 win. Nanai crashed into Jonny May with a head-high shoulder charge 10 metres out from the Worcester line, the Gloucester wing also seeing his game ended as he failed a subsequent head injury assessment.

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Nanai’s sending-off continued the Samoan’s miserable first season for Worcester, a serious shoulder injury having sidelined him since early November. An early try from Ted Hill put the hosts in front, but Nanai’s red card proved a turning point as Gloucester ran riot.

Ollie Thorley scored two tries and Jack Singleton, Louis Rees-Zammit, Jason Woodward and Stephen Varney one apiece, with Billy Twelvetrees adding two penalties and four conversions. Scott van Breda scored a late consolation try for Worcester which Duncan Weir converted.

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Former Worcester player Alex Grove guests on The Lockdown, the RugbyPass pandemic interview series

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Former Worcester player Alex Grove guests on The Lockdown, the RugbyPass pandemic interview series

Worcester made a dream start, touching down within two minutes. Playing with a penalty advantage, Billy Searle launched a speculative crossfield kick for Hill to collect a favourable bounce and score.

Searle missed the conversion and then a long-distance penalty, but Warriors continued to look the better side. They could easily have had a second try when Nanai split the visitors’ defence, but Tom Howe was unable to take a difficult pass.

 

Then came Nanai’s dismissal, with Twelvetrees kicking the resulting penalty to leave Gloucester trailing 5-3 at the end of the first quarter. Despite going down to 14, Worcester maintained their dominance and a splendid break from Ollie Lawrence secured his side a five-metre scrum. From that position the visitors were penalised, allowing Searle to kick an easy goal.

Gloucester, who chose the unheralded George Skivington to succeed Johan Ackermann as their Premiership boss, then responded with their first try when skilful passing sent Jake Polledri away down the right flank. When the ball was recycled, former Warriors hooker Singleton was on hand to step inside two tackles and bring the scores level.

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Minutes later the visitors went ahead when Twelvetrees and Polledri made telling bursts before a long pass from Danny Cipriani sent Thorley over, with a conversion from Twelvetrees giving his side a 15-8 half-time lead.

Eight minutes after the restart that lead was extended when a neat cross-field kick from Cipriani provided Thorley with a second before a driving line-out saw Joe Simpson provide Rees-Zammit with an easy run-in for the bonus point.

Worcester conceded a fifth when Woodward raced in from half-way before Warriors hit back as Van Breda opened his Premiership try-scoring account. Gloucester, however, had the final say as replacement Varney darted over.

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J
JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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