Jonathan Thomas hails impact of England star on Worcester debut
Worcester head coach Jonathan Thomas saluted an “exceptional” performance by scrum-half recruit Willi Heinz after the Warriors eased past Gallagher Premiership opponents London Irish.
England international Heinz scored a try on his league debut for Worcester, having arrived alongside more than a dozen newcomers at Sixways this summer.
And the 34-year-old wasted little time making an impact, claiming Worcester’s second touchdown and then creating Worcester’s bonus-point try for number eight Matt Kvesic.
“I thought Willi was exceptional,” Thomas said.
“He is a really experienced player, with his Crusaders background in New Zealand and international rugby. His personality is one that he wants to help people grow.
“He is invaluable to us as a player and as a person.”
Worcester’s 36-24 victory was their first on-pitch Premiership win since beating Irish in November last year, with all of their other league victories last season being coronavirus-related forfeits.
Flanker Sam Lewis, full-back Melani Nanai and wing Perry Humphreys also crossed for Worcester, with Wales international fly-half Owen Williams kicking four conversions and a penalty.
Thomas added: “First and foremost, at the start of a season, a win is very important, and a bonus point is the cherry on the cake.
“It was a start. We are not getting carried away with that at all. There is a huge amount of growth and much more to come as a team.
“Winning is a habit, but losing is a habit, and to break that habit is tougher than you think.
“There is a lot of feelgood factor around the club, but you have still got to win rugby matches, and that is easier said than done.”
Worcester head to the home of Premiership champions Harlequins next weekend and Thomas said: “There is nothing to lose.
“They are champions, no-one is going to expect us to win at The Stoop, but let’s just focus on ourselves. Potentially, we have got an exciting team that is going to grow over time.”
Irish scored tries for wing Ollie Hassell-Collins, number eight Albert Tuisue and a double by substitute prop Ollie Hoskins, but Paddy Jackson had an off-day from the goalkicking tee, landing two conversions, and they never seriously threatened to halt Worcester’s momentum.
They also lost scrum-half Ben White to the sin-bin just before half-time and Worcester posted two tries in his absence.
Irish rugby director Declan Kidney said: “You can see a lot of the good things we did today and the scores we conceded, we can manage those.
“We got four tries and probably left one or two behind.
“It is a great league and there is no place for hiding. Errors are errors and these things happen, but I thought our attitude was spot-on.”
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Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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