Warriors pick up two points against unbeaten Ealing

Worcester Warriors fell to a narrow defeat against unbeaten Ealing Trailfinders, taking home two bonus points to secure a home quarter-final in the Elior Champ Rugby.

Both teams crossed for three tries apiece in the first-half with the visitors outscoring Worcester by one try in the second period to secure victory.

It took three minutes for Sixways to erupt with noise when following a strong break from Tim Anstee and Will Lane got Worcester into strong field position, a tap penalty move saw Hallam Chapman drive over for the game’s opening try.

Ealing crossed for two quick tries, first Mike Willemse went over from a driving maul before captain Josh Taylor added a second following a well-worked wrap-around move from a line-out.

Warriors fly-half Billy Twelvetrees then saw yellow for a penalty at ruck-time and Ealing soon had a third as they capitalised on the player advantage to work the ball out wide before the inside pass finds scrum-half Michael Stronge to add a third.

Despite being down to fourteen, Worcester added a second when Alfie Garside picked the intercept perfectly to race in with Rory Taylor adding the extras.

As the first half edged into the final ten minutes, the Warriors added a third try when hooker Archie Vanes latched onto the back of a driving maul to go over and gave his side the lead at the break.

Just two minutes into the second half, Worcester extended their lead when Vanes created the gap in the Ealing defence from a line-out before sending in Josh Bassett for the bonus point try.

Ealing narrowed the gap on the fifty-five-minute mark when Reuben Bird-Tulloch crossed outwide, with fly-half Rory Scannell adding his second conversion of the day.

And as the game edged into the final ten minutes, the visitors took the lead after the ball was spread wide to centre Francis Moore, who dived over in the corner, Scannell again converting.

Worcester continued to fight to get back into the game, Thabo Ndimande putting in a number of bone-crunching tackles and Matt Kvesic winning turnovers at the breakdown.

But Scannell clinched the game for the visitors in the final moments with a penalty, leaving Worcester with two losing bonus points, but a home quarter-final secured.

Warriors 28

T – Hallam Chapman 3’, Alfie Garside 21’, Archie Vanes 33’, Josh Bassett 42’

C – Billy Twelvetrees 3’, 33’, 42’, Rory Taylor 21’

YC – Billy Twelvetrees 15’

Ealing 34

T – Mike Willemse 6’, Josh Taylor 11’, Michael Stronge 17’, Reuben Bird-Tulloch 55’, Francis Moore

C – Rory Scannell 17’, 55’

P – Rory Scannell 80’

Warriors Team

15 Juan Gonzalez, 14 Jake Garside (Will Trewin 50’), 13 Alfie Garside, 12 Rory Taylor (Tiff Eden 75’), 11 Josh Bassett, 10 Billy Twelvetrees, 9 Will Lane; 1 Billy Keast (Livai Natave 45’), 2 Archie Vanes (Austin Wallis 45’), 3 Fraser Balmain (Cam Miell 64’), 4 Hallam Chapman (Obinna Nkwocha 50’), 5 James Tyas, 6 Tim Anstee, 7 Matt Kvesic ©, 8 Hugh Bokenham (Thabo Ndimande 50’)

Unused - 23 James Short

Ealing Team

15 Patrick Campbell (Reuben Bird-Tulloch 15’), 14 Toby Cousins, 13 Francis Moore, 12 Jordan Holgate, 11 Tom Collins, 10 Rory Scannell, 9 Michael Stronge (Craig Hampson 52’); 1 Kyle Whyte (Lefty Zigiriadis 26’), 2 Mike Willemse (Scott Buckley 26’), 3 Adam Nicol (George Davis 26’), 4 David Douglas Bridge (Matas Jurevicius 64’), 5 Sean Lonsdale, 6 Josh Taylor © (Kyle Hatherell 52’), 7 Conor Oliver, 8 Will Montgomery

Unused - 22 George Worboys

Juan Gonzalez was chosen as our Match Sponsor (Burlington Financial Solutions) Man of the Match, and Alfie Garside was chosen as our Match Ball Sponsor (Verlingue) Man of the Match.

Thanks as always to Everton's Wine Merchants for providing the champagne.