University of Sheffield 26-0 Worcester
Sheffield’s top university rugby union side took their exceptional league form this season – they sit top of their league with 12 wins from 13 games – into cup competition by easily qualifying for their first national cup quarter-final in years with a dominant win over Worcester.
The visitors come from the league above Sheffield, but the home side made a mockery of the standings in freezing temperatures, with captain Johnny France leading from the front with two tries.
Sheffield were firmly camped in the Worcester half for virtually the entire first quarter of the game, Rapello the first to come close, bursting through the defensive line only to be tackled down just as he seemed to have a clean break. However it wasn’t long before the inevitable home score, a top passing move that had Will Ville at its heart eventually saw the ball break to France, whose try was simply converted by Magowan for 7-0.
Though Worcester stirred into life after this, Sheffield still looked the more confident, dominating the scrum and making all the noise. Alex Frew almost sparked a sensational try just before the break with an extraordinarily risky looping pass from the right following a pacy break, but it came to nought and the score line at least was tight at the interval.
Attrition and high tensions became the order of the day in the opening second half exchanges, with Worcester getting frustrated at their inability to make their mark against lower league opposition, and Sheffield confidence perhaps leaning dangerously close to cockiness. However, the home attitude was to prove justified as they ran away with the game in the final 15 minutes: Sheffield surprisingly took a scrum from a penalty five yards from the away line, but it proved justified as the exceptional Uni pack drove over the line, with France on hand to gobble up his second. Sheffield returned to that same corner minutes later, as they pressured Worcester right from the kick-off, with Frew the man to complete the move.
Scrum half Andrew Magowan then took over the spotlight – having just missed his conversion on France’s second try from right on the touchline, he got it right this time from virtually the same spot: 19-0. The rout was then completed, when Alex Fawdry intercepted a wayward pass 40 yards out, and sprinted all the way over to compound Worcester’s misery, Magowan again converted. With all said and done, no team will relish a trip to Norton in the Quarter-Finals.
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