London Welsh exit Premiership with Worcester win

London Welsh ended their Premiership campaign with a 33-22 victory over Worcester Warriors at the Kassam Stadium.

Already relegated, Exiles ran in four tries for the first time this season
to end their Premiership tenure on a high.

The home side started like a train as they were determined to end their one-season
stint in the Premiership in style and young winger Dan Caprice rewarded their
early enthusiasm with a try inside five minutes as he spotted a gap and outstripped
the covering defenders.

And it didn’t take long for the Warriors’ afternoon to go from bad to worse
as Neil Best was yellow-carded and moments later Alfie To’oala found himself
in the right place after a driving line-out and crashed over for the hosts’
second try.

Gordon Ross added both conversions and a penalty and, despite having Daniel
Browne, Kirill Kulemin and Ross sent to the sin bin before half-time, the Exiles
managed to make it to the break with a 17-3 lead as the visitors could only
muster a solitary Andy Goode penalty in response.

Ross was missing for the opening 10 minutes of the second half after his deliberate
knock-on at the end of the first but that didn’t seem to hamper London Welsh
at all and Tom Arscott dived over after a spell of concerted pressure from the
14 men to extend their advantage.

Ross slotted over another three points on his return to the fray and the hosts
sealed their first try bonus point of the campaign soon afterwards as Nick Scott
demonstrated some impressive footwork and pace to get past three defenders on
his way over the line.

Worcester did mount some form of comeback as Fiji-born former London Welsh
winger Josh Drauniniu scored two quick-fire tries in the space of three minutes
just before the hour mark.

The 27-year-old showed blistering pace for both scores as he first intercepted
a loose pass and streaked away and then sprinted down the centre of the field
and shrugged off the challenge of Arscott before touching down. ‘

Goode converted both tries but the game was up when Chris Jones became the
recipient of an astonishing fifth yellow card of the contest and Ross knocked
over a late penalty.

Jake Abbott did grab a late consolation try for the Warriors with the final
act of the match but it was the London Welsh fans who went home celebrating
a fifth top flight victory as they prepare for life in the Championship next
season.

Final Score London Welsh 33 (17) Worcester 22 (3)

Scorers

London Welsh
Tries: Caprice, To’oala, Arscott, Scott
Cons: Ross 2
Pens: Ross 3

Worcester
Tries: Drauniniu 2, Abbott
Cons: Goode 2
Pens: Goode

Match Officials
Referee: Mathew Carley (1st Premiership game)
Assistant Referees: Paul Dix and Stuart Terheege.

Teams

London Welsh:

15. Tom Arscott, 14. Dan Caprice, 13. Seb Stegmann, 12. James Lewis, 11. Nick Scott, 10. Gordon Ross (C), 9. Rob Lewis, 1. Tom Bristow, 2. Greg Bateman, 3. Arthur Joly, 4. Kirill Kulemin, 5. Matt Corker, 6. Daniel Browne, 7. Lee Beach, 8. Alfie To’oala.

Replacements: 16. Dan George, 17. James Tideswell, 18. Billy Moss, 19. Adam Brown, 20. Julio Cabello Farias, 21. Mike Denbee, 22. Alex Davies, 23. Joe Ajuwa.

Warriors

15 Chris Pennell , 14 Josh Drauniniu , 13 Andy Short , 12 Alex Grove , 11 Ben Howard , 10 Andy Goode , 9 Jonny Arr, 1 Matt Mullan , 2 Ed Shervington , 3 Euan Murray , 4 James Percival (c) , 5 Chris Jones , 6 Neil Best , 7 Sam Betty , 8 Richard de Carpentier

Replacements:16 Aleki Lutui , 17 Rob O’Donnell , 18 John Andress , 19 Dean Schofield , 20 Jake Abbott , 21 Paul Hodgson , 22 Danny Gray , 23 M