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Van der Merwe and Shillcock both shine as Worcester upset Sale
By PA
Duhan van der Merwe and Jamie Shillcock scored a brace of tries apiece as Worcester claimed a 27-14 Gallagher Premiership victory over Sale at Sixways Stadium. Warriors were 14-0 up after twelve minutes after both men scored a converted try, with Guss Warr scoring for Sale later on in the half.
And they repeated the trick, sandwiching a second Sale try from Curtis Langdon, and that proved enough to seal a much-needed bonus-point victory for Worcester. Heavy losses to Exeter, Leicester and Northampton in their past three matches left Warriors eleventh in the Premiership table after just one victory all season and five straight losses.
Sale were just eighth but would have expected to add to their two wins so far this campaign based on their recent form. Warriors were dealt a blow before kick-off, with Ethan Waller stepping in for Rory Sutherland after the latter failed a fitness test. Yet they started perfectly with Shillcock breaking through the Sale defence following superb build-up play to score the first try just seven minutes in.
After Fin Smith’s conversion, it took them only two minutes to score a second with Scotland and Lions winger van der Merwe sprinting from 25 metres out down the sideline. Smith again added extras to hand Warriors a 14-0 lead in only twelve minutes, though Sale began to respond and nearly scored only to come up against some strong defending three metres out.
It did not take long for them to breakthrough, however, Warr darting through after a scrum six metres out before Robert du Preez’s successful conversion. In an open contest, Smith built a ten-point lead for the hosts after a 28th-minute penalty, with Sale narrowly missing out on a second try with a costly knock-on when attacking at the end of the first half.
Another opportunity was missed early in the second half, with a du Preez penalty smacking the post and cleared away. After that, it was the Warriors who had the best of the action, though there were no real opportunities for either team until van der Merwe struck once again.
The Scotland international received the ball around 30 metres out and superbly fended off a handful of Sale defenders to score his second try of the day. There were signs of a potential comeback for Sale when replacement Langdon scored their second try in the 63rd minute through a driving maul, AJ MacGinty adding the conversion.
But any hopes of a comeback were ended by Shillcock, whose 68th-minute sprint over the try line handed Worcester a 13-point lead which was not touched thanks to some stoic defending in the closing stages.
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Latest Comments
Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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