Cox hails Warriors’ never-say-die spirit
STAR man Matt Cox saluted his powerpacked forwards as Worcester ignited their Challenge Cup campaign with a five-try slaying of the Dragons.
Two second-half penalty tries, along with further scores from Val Rapava Ruskin, Dean Hammond and Max Stelling did the damage on the scoreboard, with a crucial 15 minutes of non-stop defence before halftime proving equally decisive when down to 13 men. No.8 Cox told The Rugby
Paper: “We managed things well during that period, when we were two men down, and our front five were fantastic throughout. To get two penalty tries is credit to them and we were clinical in attack as well.
“We’ve emphasised getting a winning mentality and there were a lot of hungry boys out there. We can’t afford to slip up in this competition and must kickon now, but we’ll go to Newport next week with confidence and see what we can do.”
Ben Howard failed to ground Stelling’s grubber as Worcester opened brightly, and Howard was soon involved again, combining sharply with debutant flyhalf Connor Braid and Jack Singleton before Braid was hammered into touch.
Dragons were first on the board, though, when Angus O’Brien dropped a goal following neat build-up play from Tyler Morgan and Sarel Pretorius.
Warriors flanker Sam Betty was sin-binned for a shoulder charge, enabling O’Brien to slot a penalty, and Dragons looked set for the game’s first try when Ashton Hewitt released Nic Cudd, only for Cox to pull off a superb saving tackle.
Worcester lost a second man to the bin when Christian Scotland-Williamson tripped Tom Prydie. However, Dragons failed to take advantage as, despite Prydie’s promptings, the shorthanded home side defended magnificently to hold out.
Back at full strength, Warriors forced a penalty, only for Braid to shoot badly wide. But Warriors were not to be denied as Rapava Ruskin piled over after good work from Carl Kirwan and Cox, with Braid converting for a 7-6 lead.
Suitably encouraged, Worcester built solid pressure from the restart and, after Scotland-Williamson, Will Spencer and Biyi Alo made impressive inroads, Howard showed impressive turn of speed before offloading for Hammond to cross.
Warriors almost notched their third try when Josh Adams broke down the right. O’Brien did well to smash him into touch but Worcester came again and, after Dragons prop Brok Harris saw yellow at scrumtime, a penalty try ensued.
Dragons’ scrum was reeling and Warriors took full advantage, forcing three close-range penalties before Leon Brown went to the cooler. Worcester again turned on the power to earn a penalty try.
That brought up the bonus point and Worcester had their fifth try when Braid scythed through and Cox went close, before the ball sped wide to Hammond, whose neat inside pass ushered Stelling over.
Dragons were well beaten but two fine individual tries from Hewitt in the last five minutes added belated gloss to their dismal afternoon.
Dragons boss Kingsley Jones lamented: “Worcester were dominant in the collisions and scrum and we came a poor second there.”