Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

LV Cup round-up: Burns too hot for Worcester

Martin Pengelly
Sunday 31 January 2010 01:00 GMT
Comments

Gloucester beat Worcester 17-5 at Kingsholm in yesterday's early LV Cup match. In the late one, the Scarlets beat London Wasps 18-13 at Adams Park.

Gloucester scored a try in each half. The young wing Freddie Burns scored the first and the Fijian flanker Akapusi Qera the second. The fly-half Nicky Robinson converted both and kicked a penalty. Chris Pennell scored a late try for Worcester in front of a crowd of 7,192, in a ground that can hold 16,500. Neither side are particularly likely to make the semi-finals, which might be one reason for such indifference. Another might be that the LV Cup is hardly a pulse-quickener at the best of times.

Gloucester's director of rugby, Bryan Redpath, said: "The players are disappointed with their performance. In the first half I was delighted but in the second we just didn't finish. We had a number of chances and we have got to take two or three more if we are going to beat the better sides."

Rhys Priestland kicked six penalties in the Scarlets' win over Wasps, for whom Tom Varndell scored two tries and David Walder kicked a penalty. The Welsh region's Lions hooker, Matthew Rees, survived unscathed on his return from injury. "I back Matt to go into the Wales team for Twickenham," said the Scarlets' head coach, Nigel Davies. "He's fit and he's fine, as he showed with his performance here, especially in the line-out."

Today, London Irish are at home to Harlequins and Newcastle go to Cardiff to play the Blues. The 38-year-old centre Mike Catt will start for Irish. Their head coach, Toby Booth, said: "Matches between Harlequins and London Irish are always entertaining and hard-fought. We are fortunate to have a squad that has real strength in depth. The Six Nations provides the perfect platform to show what we are made of."

Quins will be without England's Ugo Monye, Danny Care and Nick Easter.

The Blues have Maama Molitika back at No 8 and the Wales centre Tom Shanklin making a 100th appearance for the region. Newcastle give starts to the centre Michael Tait, scrum-half Chris Pilgrim and prop Grant Shiels.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in