Gloucester ease to victory
Gloucester comfortably secured their first win of the Aviva Premiership season with a 29-8 victory over Worcester.
Last Updated: 10/09/11 5:59pm
Gloucester comfortably secured their first win of the Aviva Premiership season as Jonny May and Tom Voyce grabbed tries in a 29-8 victory over Worcester.
Fly-half Tim Taylor also notched a conversion and four penalties after May had opened the scoring with a breakaway try, with the hosts surging into a 19-3 lead by half-time at Kingsholm.
Replacement Freddie Burns added a further penalty in the second half before converting Voyce's late try, while Dale Rasmussen got a consolation try for Worcester in the closing stages.
The result sees Bryan Redpath's side bounce back from their late defeat at Northampton last weekend, while the Warriors were brought back down to earth following their opening-day win against Sale.
The hosts did not have the best of starts, however, as Taylor put the kick-off out on the full and they were then penalised at the first scrum.
Advantage
But they were ahead in the seventh-minute when a loose pass from Joe Carlisle was collected by May, who sprinted 60 yards to touch down under the sticks, with Taylor adding the extras.
The advantage was extended on 21 minutes as an aimless kick from Carlisle gave the hosts a scrum in Worcester territory and Taylor made no mistake with the resulting penalty.
Three more points followed soon afterwards as Miles Benjamin was penalised for holding on after being caught in possession from a Taylor kick, with the fly-half then slotting over from 30 yards.
More ill-discipline from the Warriors gave Taylor a third successful penalty just after the 30 minute mark, although the Warriors did get on the board before the break with a Carlisle penalty.
They ended the half down to 14 men, however, as Marcel Garvey was yellow carded for killing the ball, with the infringement being punished by Taylor's penalty.
Intent
Worcester started the second half with more intent but were held back by their inability to secure ball at the breakdown as the home back-row trio of Peter Buxton, Andy Hazell and Matt Cox worked tirelessly and secured several turnovers.
Gloucester still looked the more threatening side and could have been in again had Lesley Vainikolo held a Taylor pass after the fly-half had fended off some slack defending.
Worcester replacement Andy Goode then missed an easy chance to reduce the gap as he missed from almost in front of the posts.
But Gloucester substitute Burns nailed a penalty attempt of his own before May to put Voyce, who was a late replacement for James Simpson-Daniel, over on the left in the closing minutes.
Worcester did make the score look slightly more respectable when they worked Rasmussen over in added time.