Plymouth V The Warriors 2 Nov 2002

    The journey down was horrendous, driving rain all the way from Worcester to Plymouth. Special mention has to be made of the brave band of supporters who embarked in their hundred's to support The Warriors. The noise and encouragement from just the start of  the warm-up sent shivers down your spine.(mind you that could have been the gallons of rain)

    This was seen as one of the big three games along with Rotherham away and Exeter away. Plymouth were a bit of an unknown quantity, yes they had been very successful in Div 2, had a long rugby history but had they made the step upto Div 1 standards. They were already performing well at home, Rotherham being the only side to beat them here in 41 games. The pack was big, powerful, lead and coached by Graham Dawe, there was no doubting that they would be well organised and motivated

As all games this season it started at an incredible rate, with The Warriors immediately on the attack, phase after phase driving the Plymouth defence back towards their own goal line. Great credit has to be paid at this point for the sheer effort and level of skill shown in defence by the whole of the Plymouth team. Within 60 seconds The Warriors were over the line but Plymouth managed to hold up the player??

For the second game running the game plans were thrown into confusion by the early injury to Christian Evans, he was replaced by Jim Jenner. It shows the massive strength in depth in the squad when you can bring on players like Jim Jenner and still have two premiership players and an international on the bench.

    It is testament to the coaches and players that this enforced change had no detrimental effect on the team, who made automatic adjustments for a different type of player.

Once again The warriors attacked, making light of the dreadful conditions. The first try was straight out of the Warriors top draw and typical of their growing confidence and style. The ball was whipped out once again from Werner to Craig (Chick) Chalmers, the master distributor, who sent the ball fast to Gary Trueman who in a split second passed to Ben Hinshelwood who flicked on to Craig Hudson. All this was done at top speed, by the time it reached Craig it had gone through 4 pairs of hands within two strides, incredible to think that it was absolutely pouring with rain and very windy. Craig took the ball and just powered inside the winger and straight through the fullback.

Great stuff to watch, terrifyingly easy, this just set the scene for a marvellous 30 minutes of rugby.

The forwards were taking on Plymouth at their own game and were winning! They were playing with true passion, there was no way that this game would descend into mediocrity.

It was impossible to believe that in these conditions a fast handling game was possible, well let me assure you the Warriors believed it and it was the forwards handling. Long gone are the days when a prop needs the ball putting in his hands these players were scooping it up, flick passing, subtle soft hands were slipping passes all around the field. At times the ball was dropped or went wide of the mark but the backrow in Jenner Pfister and Bates were on hand every time to clean up, make a pass and another gap was created for another supporting player to power through.

A comment from next to me, an long standing player/supporter of Plymouth said, "There's no way we can keep tackling like this, this is a great tem you have here"!!

The power and pace of The warriors was staring to show firstly Martin Morgan powering over followed by Jim  Jenner himself, making it three tries in the first half.

Werner from the moment the game started was injecting pace on the game with his fast delivery all around him. he and the players knew exactly where each other were and where they were going, he just put the ball in exactly the right place.

There is no doubt that these conditions did have an effect on the game as the powerful thrusting breaks in the midfield were vastly reduced, it was now time for the forwards to prove themselves and they did. However the twinkle toed backs did have some sparkling moments Ben accelerating and smashing his way through the defences  and Nnamdi scorching past his opposite number, chipping the fullback only to be tackled into touch, just.

But today was all about the forwards!!!

The second half was a real test and one The Warriors came through with flying colours and great credit.

The Plymouth pack now started to play to their strengths, the front 10 players. they had discovered they were not going to breakdown the Warriors defence out wide and sensibly tightened up their game and used their forward power.

It was now time for the forwards to dig deep and show their true mettle, they defended magnificently. Plymouth regularly made ground using the maul but could not every time they attempted to break away they were stopped in their tracks and the ball recovered for Worcester to relieve their lines

10 minutes after the restart Chick was replaced by Tim Walsh, the Australian 7's international fly half. He immediately stamped his presence on the game with a sublimely timed pass to Gary Trueman who stormed away and a last ditch tackle right on the line saved the try, the ball being dropped and knocked on.

We then had 5 minutes of pressure on the Plymouth line again just short of the line on two occasions and held up on another. But Plymouth were not about to give up.

They had weathered the storm saved the tries which gave them heart and back they came playing some great forward rugby. Worcester just could not get their hands on the ball and time was ticking away. At the end of the first half and the beginning of the second the fourth try looked a formality, in fact the Plymouth supporters around us thought it had been scored.

3 minutes to go and no bonus try!! Did they panic, did they give up, did they resign themselves to the win and 4 points -- not on your life!! This team is made of stern stuff and are very professional. They finally got into the Plymouth 22 and just stepped another gear, again it was phase after phase of pressure rugby until Plymouth gave away a penalty.

The referee played advantage but another infringement brought the ball back. Werner sensed the chance and like The Cat he was he sprinted back to the point played the ball and slipped a beautiful pass to Adrian Olver coming in at Speed and no-one was going to stop him from there. Over he went touched down and the 5 points were ours.

3 minutes later a penalty was awarded to Worcester on the halfway line and Tim Walsh asked the ref how long to play, "next time out of play is the end of the game. So sensibly decided to have a go for goal and 3 more points, unfortunately slid wide, but just about had the legs.

1.    A great display of 15 man rugby in awful conditions led by the forwards

2.   The forwards day 3 tries to 1

3.   Penalty count was up again must be more careful

4.   Defence at the maul still not perfect but improving

5.   Our first game without conceding a try

6.   Tim Walsh looks a good player and will add yet another dimension to our play

7.   Mark Gabey, Richard Bates, Martin Morgan and Jim Jenner are starting to look awesome with the ball in hand making yard after yard against a very good pack!!

8.   All in all we are now a rugby team!!!!!