Warriors suffer first defeat of Champ campaign

Worcester Warriors suffered their first defeat of the Elior Champ Rugby season on the road at Doncaster.

Both sides crossed for five tries each, but four conversions and a penalty from Knights fly-half Tom Curtis secured the hosts' victory.

It was the hosts who took an early lead when hooker Ben Sugars went over from a driving maul after building pressure with back-to-back penalties.

Sugars' try opened the floodgates, with six more tries coming in the second 25 minutes of the half.

First it was the Warriors who hit back with returning hooker Will Biggs steering a driving maul towards the try-line.

Knights winger Penaia Tagutu was next to cross, receiving the ball after quick hands from his backline before dancing to the try-line.

Four minutes later Biggs grabbed his second with an excellent finish from a driving maul which looked certain to be defended into touch.

And the Warriors added a third with some slick handling from the Worcester back-line put Josh Bassett through a gap in the Doncaster defence before one phase later Matt Kvesic sent in Jake Garside to score.

Tagutu soon added his second try of the game before the end-to-end action continued and Tim Anstee added his fifth try of the season.

On the stroke of half-time, Knights fly-half Curtis kicked a penalty to level the scores in an end-to-end opening period.

Early in the second period, Warriors prop Livai Natave saw yellow for a high tackle, and the hosts soon took advantage of the numerical advantage with Zach Kerr strolling over to put his side back ahead.

Worcester continued to push for a fifth try, and a way back into the game, and the try came midway through the half when Jake Garside spotted a gap in the Doncaster defence, got the pass away to Louis Brown, who sent in Bassett outwide.

The push continued into the final ten minutes but Doncaster’s defence held-strong and as the game edged towards its close, Rory Taylor was shown Worcester’s second yellow card of the game before Telusa Veainu strolled over for the game securing victory.

Doncaster 36

T – Ben Sugars 15’, Penaia Tagutu 21’, 33’, Zach Kerr 48’, Telusa Veainu 77’

C – Tom Curtis 15’, 21’, 48’, 77’

P – Tom Curtis 40’

Warriors 27

T – Will Biggs 19’, 25’, Jake Garside 28’, Tim Anstee 36’, Josh Bassett 61’

C – Will Reed 28’,

YC – Livai Natave 41’, Rory Taylor 75’

Doncaster Team

15 Telusa Veainu (c), 14 Semesa Rokoduguni, 13 Zach Kerr, 12 Tom Curtis, 11 Penaia Tagutu, 10 Kieran Wilkinson, 9 Ollie Fox (Alex Dolly 63’); 1 Loogvi'i Mulipola (Jake Ellwood 48’), 2 Ben Sugars (Nathan Langdon 63’), 3 Angus Williams (Callum Hancock 53’), 4 Ben Glanville, 5 Adam Hopkinson, 6 Adam Hopkinson, 7 Aidan King, 8 Jasper McGuire

Unused - 19 Louie Kirkham, 20 Josh Bainbridge, 22 Harry Yates, 23 Ryan Olowofela

Warriors Team

15 Louis Brown, 14 Jake Garside, 13 Alfie Garside, 12 Rory Taylor, 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Will Reed (Tiff Eden 75’), 9 Will Lane (Lloyd Williams 48’); 1 Billy Keast (Livai Natave HT), 2 Will Biggs (Jack Dickinson 48’), 3 Fraser Balmain (Ashley Challenger 68’), 4 Tom Savage, 5 John Hawkins (James Tyas 58’), 6 Tim Anstee, 7 Matt Kvesic © (James Cherry 58’), 8 Hallam Chapman (Kofi Cripps 48’)