Quins were humiliated by the scrummaging of the Worcester pack. The forwards simply handed over the job of scoring the points to fly-half James Brown, the former England schoolboy international, and he kicked five out of five penalties to take his team to eighth, their highest position in their first season in the top flight.
“We said before the game that they had the second-best scrum in the league after Leicester,” said Harlequins coach Mark Evans. “After today we might have to revise that. They scrummed us. It allowed them to control the clock and control the field position.”
Worcester’s victory was all the more remarkable because they abandoned their original gameplan after the first quarter and asked the forwards to take over.
Brown’s kicking and Worcester’s forward play made a formidable combination, with the fly-half and the pack feeding from each other. The final penalty came from a drive in the scrum of such intensity that Quins stood up after rolling backwards for 15 metres.
There are some campaigners from the School of Hard Yards in the Worcester forwards and their coach, Andy Keast, made a particular plea for England to take a special note of tighthead Chris Horsman, who will also qualify to play for Wales in May. Horsman is on the long list of players signalled as potential British & Irish Lions in the summer and Keast pleaded for him to be included in England’s thinking. “There aren’t many good tightheads around,” he stressed.
Advertisement
Props Horsman and Tony Windo anchored the Worcester scrum to total effect with Craig Gillies and Tim Collier using their height and poundage just as convincingly behind them.
It was a curious fact, in view of the result, that Quins had most of the territory in the first half when they played with the wind and ended 6-3 ahead with two penalties from Jeremy Staunton to Brown’s one.
But Quins did not or could not make use of Ugo Monye on the wing, Gavin Duffy ended inches from the line when he was trying to emulate his try-scoring feat for Ireland a week earlier, and Tony Diprose’s efforts at the tail of the lineout reaped little profit.
Worcester drew level with Brown’s second penalty after 52 minutes and were in front three minutes later, having been frustrated when Drew Hickey fell short of the line from a 40m run and Windo was checked out wide. But Quins had gone offside and again Brown punished them. Brown increased the lead further when, first, Duffy was penalised for not releasing and then the Quins scrum stood up after being driven back 15 metres.
But Harlequins did gain something of value in the seventh minute of stoppage time when Staunton’s third penalty provided a bonus point which may prove invaluable.
Advertisement
“There are a lot of critical scores,” said Evans. “Clearly this was an important game, they always are at this time of the year. Worcester are on 29 points, we are on 26, and they will be happier. We need 11 points from six games.”
STAR MAN: James Brown (Worcester)
Harlequins: T Williams; S Keogh, G Duffy, G Harder, U Monye; J Staunton, S So’oialo; M Worsley, T Fuga (J Hayter 69min), C Jones (J Dawson h-t), J Evans (R Winters 72min), S Maling (S Miall 66min), N Easter, T Diprose, A Vos (capt).
Advertisement
Penalties: Staunton (3)
Worcester: T Delport; D O’Leary (T Hayes 58min), D Rasmussen, T Lombard, B Hinshelwood; J Brown, M Powell (N Cole 75min); T Windo, A van Niekerk, C Horsman, T Collier (P Murphy 75min), C Gillies,
D Hickey, B MacLeod-Henderson, P Sanderson (capt).
Penalties: Brown (5)
Advertisement
Referee: C White (RFU). Attendance: 8,166