Worboys repays Easter’s support
CHINNOR secured promotion to the Championship last weekend and star man George Worboys thanks director of rugby Nick Easter for showing belief in him after a frustrating time in the Premiership with Bath.
The Oxfordshire outfit were victorious away at Birmingham Moseley 52-0 and were crowned champions of the third tier after a lengthy title race with rivals Rams.
Fly-half Worboys was an instrumental figure in the club’s success, currently second in the league’s points scoring charts with 206 from just 18 outings.
The 23-year-old has benefitted from the faith shown in him by former Harlequins and Newcastle coach Easter and was delighted to win promotion in style.
Worboys told The Rugby Paper: “It was all set up brilliantly with us going into the match needing at least a draw, so we got stuck in and said let’s see what we can do. It’s so good to be a part of a team that’s so dominant like that.
“I didn’t know what Nick would be like with him working before in the Premiership, so did wonder what the dynamic would be like but with me, he was incredible and very supportive. He made it clear from the outset he wanted me to be the starting 10 which was all I needed to hear. The sessions are always fun, I have to drive an hour and 40 minutes to Chinnor and I couldn’t be more happy to do it. He sent me a really nice message the other day and I can’t thank him enough for what he’s given me.”
Worboys had been on Bath’s books since 2017 and made his Premiership debut in 2022 away at Saracens. He played against Northampton and Newcastle soon after but following that he found game time hard to come by with Orlando Bailey and recently Finn Russell the preferred options at 10.
Following enjoyable loan spells with Coventry and Taunton Titans, Chinnor has given the former England U18s playmaker an opportunity to grow as a player and enjoy a campaign with frequent front foot ball courtesy of the club’s beefy pack.
He added: “Chinnor gave me a place to practice things I know I needed to work on from my time at Bath. There was a lot of frustration as I wasn’t playing at Bath, so Chinnor was the place I could go and be myself to try things like really testing my defence which came as a result of important but often tough conversations because you hear things you don’t want to hear. The forwards have been amazing this season and provided the platform for me to express myself.
“I played against Chinnor last season for Taunton and we put 50 points on them, so I didn’t know how this season would play out. Chinnor have new coaches, new players but it wasn’t a huge amount of change just small fixes. The campaign started off tough as the first game I played was off the bench against Plymouth which we lost. But after that pretty much every game we played we smashed and surprised ourselves at what we could do.”