Rugby Union: Mapletoft excels in labour of love

Gloucester 31

Worcester 17

NOBLE PRINCIPLE and fine talk come cheap. It is turning words into action which is the hard part and for at least half of this always competitive cup tie Worcester, assembled at a relatively modest cost in these inflationary times, did just that. On their joyride to the upper reaches of the Second Division, Worcester have resisted all temptation to invest heavily in the recruitment of players. Thus far their admirable policy has worked well enough but how would it hold up at the level to which they aspire?

Gloucester and the tacky Kingsholm pitch would help provide some of the answers and at half-time when only one point separated the sides Worcester had proved their point. Despite the fact that they were heavily outgunned in the forwards, and on occasions forced into inglorious retreat as the Gloucester pack got into the groove, they succeeded in restricting their mighty opponents to fewer than half a dozen of these frontal assaults. They still had the energy and the self-confidence to run the ball sometimes from the most unpromising positions.

In these lightning sorties the influence of their rugby director Les Cusworth was patently obvious and some of the touches of Richard Le Bas were taken straight from the Cusworth manual of fly-half play. One jinking run in particular, which set up Jim Jenner's try just before half-time was a supreme mixture of guile and innovation - Cusworth at his best.

Throughout that first period Worcester had succeeded in matching Gloucester try for try and very nearly point for point. They had relied heavily on Richard Denhardt for their line-out possession and on the entire team for their relentless defensive zeal in frustrating Gloucester's best-laid plans. They had also overcome an unsteady and nervous opening spell in which they had conceded 10 points in the first seven minutes, all of them to Mark Mapletoft, who finished with 16 points and a day surely to remember.

Mapletoft's first points came from a penalty and then, profiting from a Worcester mistake close to the Gloucester line he ran fully 80 metres for the try. Having been given a 10-yard start he finished roughly the same distance ahead of his pursuers, and his partner, who had reportedly gone into labour just before the match and produced a girl during it, probably knew how he felt. All the same Mapletoft still had enough puff left to kick the conversion.

It could have been a devastating start for Worcester and few would have blamed them had they failed to recover from it. But they composed themselves by playing the game which came naturally to them. On a pitch ill-suited to running rugby they ran and passed with admirable verve and accuracy and were rewarded for their adventure when Nigel Richardson, who, a few minutes earlier, had been blatantly impeded by Rory Greenslade-Jones, extracted revenge by ploughing over for a try from a line-out close to the Gloucester line.

Perhaps complacency had seeped into the Gloucester ranks but it wasn't long before they had re-established their dominance and increased their lead through Mapletoft's second penalty and a try by Philippe Saint-Andre, which followed a thundering run by Trevor Woodman and quick-thinking by Mapletoft as the link man.

For the remainder of the half, however, it was Worcester who dominated the play. They made excellent use of the open spaces with shrewdly placed kicks and cleverly angled runs. Jenner's try in the closing seconds of the half, which John Liley converted, closed the gap to one point and although few believed that Worcester would keep abreast of their opponents in the second half, as the heavy pitch would inevitably take its toll of their tiring limbs, they had a most emphatically made their point in the opening 40 minutes.

The one thing Worcester wanted to avoid was giving away a soft try at the start of the second half. It was, alas, the first thing they did. Steve Ojomoh stepped through a couple of flaky tackles to score within two minutes of the restart. Worcester's spirit was broken there and then, and for the remainder of the match they were forced into desperate rearguard action and an avalanche of replacements. The changes brought no relief. Mapletoft kicked his third penalty, this time from long range, and Chris Fortey scored Gloucester's fourth try and smoothed their passage into the next round. Worcester, in the time-honoured parlance of cup failures, are now left to concentrate on the league and on winning promotion - if indeed there is any.

Gloucester: C Catling; B Johnson, T Fanolua, R Greenslade-Jones, P St Andre (A Lumsden, 70); M Mapletoft, N Cane; T Woodman, N McCarthy (C Fortey, 40), A Deacon (A Powles, 60), R Fidler (capt), M Cornwell (D Sims, 40), E Pearce, S Ojomoh, N Carter (A Hazell, 60).

Worcester: J Liley; S Morris (P Holford, 50), D Hughes, R Myler (N Malone, 55), N Baxter; R Le Vas, B Fenley (capt), M Linnett, D Bell (G Houston, 74), P Mitchell (J Broady, 27-37, 60), R Denhardt, C Raymond (M Gilbert, 70), G Clarke, J Jenner (E Orgee, 50), N Richardson.

Referee: R Goodliffe (RFU).