Worcester and Saracens exchange 10 tries in carefree and entertaining contest at Sixways

Worcester Warriors 40 Saracens 27

Ten tries was probably not what was expected in this largely meaningless fixture at a moist Sixways, but Worcester continued Saracens’ dreary week by putting an inexperienced side to the sword and keeping alive their slim hopes of Champions Cup qualification.

For Saracens, director of rugby Mark McCall admitted that his focus on Wednesday night was not on the result.

“The outcome is not the important thing,” he said. “It was the exposure of a number of very young players to Premiership rugby. We had a number of 19 and 20-year-olds making their debuts. The more experience they get, the better. We are very excited about this group.”

When Worcester raced into an early lead, with scrum-half Francois Hougaard – the game’s outstanding player – sniping over, it looked as if it could be a long night for Saracens. Hougaard, however, was “disappointed” that his team could not pull away.

“When you have your foot on the throat you have to keep it there,” Hougaard said. “Saracens are a champion side, it does not matter what team they bring. We know they are always going to come firing and we knew it would be tough. They showed us why.”

And, for periods in this game, Saracens’ fresh-faced line-up did cause problems. Centre Juan Pablo Socino’s neat offload put centre partner Charlie Watson clear to level the scores, before skilful wing Noah Heward collected a Hougaard grubber to restore Worcester’s lead.

That lasted for all of 10 seconds as a fumbled restart allowed Watson to cross for his second try.

A Worcester penalty try, coupled with a yellow card for Saracens full-back Elliott Obatoyinbo, gave them breathing space, before Heward and Hougaard combined again to give the South African scrum-half his second and his side the bonus point.

But Saracens stayed in touch. Wing Ali Crossdale hacked on an Obatoyinbo grubber to score, and fly-half Manu Vunipola kicked a penalty to give his side a chance, even despite the sin-binning of replacement Sam Crean for collapsing a maul.

But a late smash-and-grab from Worcester, with centre Ashley Beck and captain Ted Hill scoring, put the result beyond doubt. Crossdale managed to cross in the dying moments for Saracens to ensure the score reflected their youngsters’ hard work.

Match details

Scoring sequence: 5-0 (Hougaard try), 7-0 (Searle con), 7-5 (Watson try), 7-7 (Vunipola con), 12-7 (Heward try), 14-7 (Searle con), 14-12 (Watson try), 14-14 (Vunipola con), 21-14 (Penalty try) 26-14 (Hougaard try), 28-14 (Searle con), 28-19 (Crossdale try); 28-22 (Vunipola pen), 33-22 (Beck try), 35-22 (Searle con), 40-22 (Hill try), 40-27 (Crossdale try).

Worcester starting XV: M Nanai, P Humphreys, O Lawrence, A Beck (C Pennell 74), N Heward, B Searle, F Hougaard; E Waller (C Black 58), N Annett (B Cutting 58), N Schonert (R Palframan 58), A Bresler (J Batley 63), J Clegg, T Hill (c), M Kvesic (M Mama 54), C Du Preez. Replacements not used: G Simpson, D Weir.

Saracens starting XV: E Obatoyinbo, R Segun (A Day 59), C Watson, JP Socino (H Sloan 54), A Crossdale, Manu Vunipola, T Whiteley (B Harris 69); R Barrington (S Crean 41), T Woolstencroft (c) (S Wainwright 75), A Carey (J Ibuanokpe 51), Joel Kpoku, C Boon (Jon Kpoku 66), C Hunter-Hill, O Stonham (S Wainwright 53, O Stonham 58, E Benson 69), J Venter.

Saracens yellow cards: Obatoyinbo (22), Crean (47)

Referee: Karl Dickson