Mills drops in late to ground Ospreys
WORCESTER head coach Rory Duncan was delighted with his side’s last-gasp victory over the Ospreys in Swansea.
With the Warriors behind, up stepped Ryan Mills who smashed over a drop goal from 30 metres out to send the Gallagher Premiership side into their first European Challenge Cup quarter-final for 10 years.
The Ospreys still have a mathematical chance of qualification but will have to take maximum points off Pau in France next weekend while they are also reliant on other results going their way.
“It was a rather stressful last couple of minutes but the guys kept their composure really well and managed the game correctly,” said Duncan.
“With about four minutes to go we had a ball down in our 22 we didn’t try to play out of our half. The guys kicked well, had confidence in the system and obviously ended up with the benefits and the rewards in the end.
“Ryan said the ball almost drifted outside the post and came back in so it is nice to have a bit of good fortune on the side of the Warriors this weekend.”
Tries from Jonny Arr, Ollie Lawrence and Dean Hammond plus five points from the boots of Scot van Breda and Ryan Mills was enough to secure the win.
The Ospreys scored two tries of their own courtesy of Keelan Giles and Olly Cracknell while Luke Price and Sam Davies scored eight points between them.
Worcester got on the scoreboard when secondrow Darren Barry intercepted Luke Price’s pass before running 40 metres. The giant lock was eventually tracked down by Cory Allen but managed to release the ball to Arr who finished at the far left-hand corner.
Worcester had their tails up and went on the attack but the Ospreys gave them a taste of their own medicine when Giles intercepted a potential try-scoring pass from Ollie Lawrence before running the length of the field to score.
Cracknell extended the Ospreys’ lead at the stroke of half time as he crashed over from short range before Lawrence brought the Warriors back into the game as he danced his way past three defenders to score.
He very nearly claimed a second when he intercepted an Ospreys pass in his own 22. The Ospreys were saved when the powerful centre slipped in the opposite 22.
But the hosts were made to pay as George North was sent to the sin bin for killing the ball on the floor Worcester took advantage of their numerical advantage when a long pass from Arr put Hammond over at the corner.
Davies nailed the penalty to put the Ospreys ahead with minutes remaining. But the Ospreys conceded a needless penalty after the restart allowing the visitors to gain field position.
Worcester went through the phases before Mills stepped up to break Ospreys hearts.
Ospreys coach Allen Clarke said: “Our execution and accuracy wasn’t good enough in the secondhalf.
“We were a little bit flat and we didn’t take our opportunities.
“Our set-piece was untidy as well and we weren’t owning the gainline which meant we couldn’t put them under pressure.”