EXILES EXCEL!
Warriors battered... but could have new owner in days
London Irish 45
by Adam Hathaway
WORCESTER boss Steve Diamond watched his side take a seven-try hammering – then revealed the club could have a new owner next week.
Henry Arundell, the teenage England wing, scored twice after coming off the bench as London Irish ran riot, but Diamond insisted there could be light at the end of the tunnel for Warriors.
The Sixways outfit are in debt to HMRC and DCMS to the tune of £26million and face a winding up order petition next month.
Owners Colin Goldring and Jason Whittingham are trying to offload the club and Diamond is hopeful they will be put out of their misery shortly.
Diamond (right) said: “In the next 72 hours, there may some news of a potential investor.
“The communication lines from the owners to me have been good, but they
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are still in the mire of trying to find someone to buy this club and invest into it.
“It is a boost, but we don’t want a false dawn.
“I have been around rugby for a long time and there are not too many people who want to put their hand in their pocket and buy rugby businesses.
“If they have found somebody, great, and no doubt they will speak to me.
“You never know they might not want me to stay around, which is up to them.”
Arundell toured Australia in the summer but it was another winger, Ollie Hassell-collins – overlooked for the trip – who sparked Irish.
He scored once, had a hand in two other tries and put in a big defensive shift. And head coach Les Kiss reckons
Hassell-collins could be in with a sniff for England.
Kiss said: “There has been another growth in Ollie in the off-season. “There was some nice stuff from Ollie for sure.
“I feel that with Ollie sometimes we’re still scratching the surface. There’s only upside to him all the way.”
Main sponsor Adam Hewitt paid for the bus to bring the Worcester squad to Brentford and they were forced to wear last year’s kit because the latest one is still at a supplier who has not been paid.
They faded after a furious opening 10 minutes when they had all the ball but kept getting knocked back by Irish. Reality kicked in on 13 minutes when Hassell-collins released centre Curtis Rona after an arcing run and he put away flanker Ben Donnell. Scrumhalf Ben White added a second and Hassell-collins went through three defenders to muscle over for the third.
Arundell emerged on 47 minutes and 40 seconds later had scored after he kicked Hassell-collins’ chip through and dived over the line.
Diamond’s team rallied in the last quarter but tries from Will Joseph, hooker Agustin Creevy and Arundell’s short-range second finished them off.
Diamond added: “It was a bit more than just a rugby match – the bad news of what happened on Thursday with the Queen, the country is in shock – so you have got to put things in perspective.
“We are a rugby club that has run out of money and the owners need to find some or sell it.”
LONDON IRISH: Tries: Donnell, White, Arundell (2), Joseph, Creevy
Cons: Jackson (3), Englefield (2) WORCESTER WARRIORS: Tries:
Langdon, Shillcock Cons: Williams (2)