Worcester move clear of drop zone with win over Gloucester
JONNY Arr made a dream return to Worcester’s colours to celebrate his testimonial match in style.
Arr has been out since October with concussion but with Francois Hougaard suffering an ankle injury in last week’s win over Exeter, the 29year-old scrum-half was recalled to make his 197th appearance for the club.
His first action saw him knock on but he recovered to score Warriors’ first try, have a big hand in their second and then play an integral part in a magnificent win for his side, which virtually guaranteed their Premiership survival.
Worcester’s director of rugby, Alan Solomons said: “Jonny is the ultimate oneclub man and in the team run, Donncha (O’Callaghan) said we had to win it for Jonny.
“He played 40 minutes for Moseley last week and probably put his Worcester shirt on underneath. His game management is always excellent.
“It was really important that we backed up last week’s win at Exeter when we made 233 tackles and we did that by scoring some excellent tries and attacking and defending with equal vigour.”
Worcester’s impressive performance against the fourth placed team showed that the win over leaders, Exeter, was not so much of a fluke as it first appeared.
The first half was particularly special as David Denton and Jack Singleton tore into Gloucester to enable their backs to display some delightful handling by giving Josh Adams and Bryce Heem every opportunity to test the home defence with powerful bursts.
The second half saw Gloucester rally but a huge tackling effort, spearheaded by Ryan Mills and GJ Van Velze, kept them to a single try as the visitors huffed and puffed to no avail.
It was another typical away performance from Gloucester, who went down to their sixth loss in eight games on the road.
Their backs lacked the sparkle of the opposition and their line-out malfunctioned at crucial stages.
Worcester made a stunning start by scoring two early tries from flowing movements. Arr went over for the first when he spotted a gap in the visitors’ defence after Adams had made ground down the left.
The second from Jamie Shillcock was even better as Heem, Chris Pennell and Arr combined brilliantly.
Billy Twelvetrees put Gloucester on the board with a penalty before careless handling from Warriors gifted Matt Scott a try.
The frenetic opening continued with a fourth try before the end of the first quarter. Worcester capitalised on a yellow card for a professional foul from Henry Trinder with a superb long pass from Mills giving Adams an easy runin for his 14th try of the season.
Warriors suffered a setback when an unsteady Sam Lewis left the field before Pennell’s penalty gave them a 22-10 half-time lead.
Gloucester introduced Motu Matu’u at the interval and he made an impact with some big carries to bring his side back in contention when Trinder forced his way over after clever play from Twelvetrees and Billy Burns.
Pennell extended Warriors’ lead with his second penalty, just enough to deprive Gloucester of a bonus point.