Worcester Warriors' Ollie Lawrence puts down noticeable marker in loss to Gloucester
Worcester Warriors are not a glamourous team and if your hope is to see them as such, you are likely to remain disappointed for the foreseeable future.
They do not have the history of some of the more prestigious clubs nor have they been consistently challenging in the upper echelons of the Gallagher Premiership. Worcester, though a fine place to live, lacks the cosmopolitan lure of London, the vibrancy of Newcastle or Leicester, or the array of attractions on offer in places such as Bath and Exeter.
For the majority of the past 10 or so years, Worcester Warriors have been seen as a club that produces talent, but ultimately ends up losing it. A club that is a stopping gap in a player’s career, rather than a sought-after destination for rugby’s biggest free agents.
Director of Rugby Alan Solomons is doing his best to address and reverse that trend, though it is no overnight project.
Club academy product Ted Hill has taken on the captaincy at 21 years of age and committed his future to the side. He has been joined by new signing Billy Searle, a player Solomons will hope that he can build around at the crucial 10 position for a number of years, as well as the returning Matt Kvesic. The likes of Nic Schonert and Francois Hougaard have added quality in recent years, whilst Chris Pennell, when he eventually hangs up his boots, will go down as one of the best to ever grace Sixways Stadium.
It is clearly not a club without talented players, though it is also true that Worcester are not a side currently setting the world alight. If there were a word to describe the side, you would not go too far wrong with ‘workmanlike’, and that is no criticism.
Solomons is attempting to instil a resilience and toughness to Worcester that has been missing in recent years and that is embodied by the uncompromising nature of Hill, who did not look out of place leading his boyhood club on Saturday against Gloucester, not least so when he was diving over for a try in the first minute of the game.
A moment of madness in the first half from Melani Nanai that saw the Samoan wing red carded for a shoulder charge to the head of Jonny May made the game an uphill battle for Worcester and one that they were unlikely to get too much from, though that took none of the lacquer off of Hill’s full-time captaincy debut.
Hard edges will keep you in games and resilience will make you competitive, but to win games and keep on winning them, sometimes you need something a bit special on top of that. This is where Hill’s partner in crime, Ollie Lawrence, comes in.
Saturday’s loss to Gloucester was a potent reminder of what a complete rugby player Lawrence is becoming and there would have been plenty for England head coach Eddie Jones to glean from the young centre’s performance.
Lawrence has the attacking talent through his pace, footwork and ability to beat his man one-on-one to provide that spark and incision that Worcester need to trouble opposition defences. That has been an apparent part of his game ever since he was dominating in the Bromsgrove 1st XV at schoolboy level.
It is in the areas around this where Lawrence’s development is most notable, as he rounds out the rough edges of his skill set.
There was a confidence in his kicking game on Saturday afternoon, ranging from a booming pressure reliver inside his own 22, to the well-weighted through-ball off the inside of his foot to almost send Worcester in for their second try of the game. It was unrecognisable from the 19-year-old who would consistently take on any and everyone in front of him.
Defensively, it was always going to be a challenge for Lawrence once Nanai left the field, leaving an abundance of space on the pitch for the outside centre to defend. Nevertheless, that did not stop him lining up Lewis Ludlow and driving him back in the tackle, showing his enviable pound-for-pound power. He also stayed in his lane and prevented a pass or offload to the support when James Woodward beat the blitz of Francois Venter. He worked hard on the scramble and marshalled the space well when Danny Cipriani put the ball through the hands, rather than with the boot.
As a ball-carrier, he reinforced his ability to run back against the grain and hit those incisive lines against an over-pursuing drift defence. His proclivity for standing up a defender and burning them on the outside arc is already well-known. As a result, you could see the respect that the Gloucester defence were having to pay him, as one dummy line back inside caught the attention of multiple defenders, saw at least two of them plant their feet in response, and thus space was created outside for his teammates.
He is winning more of his collisions in both defence and attack, too. The movement of his feet in contact is noticeable, as he no longer relies on the searing pace and ability to instantaneously break a tackle that set him apart at the age-grade levels.
This wasn’t the sort of Gloucester return Jonny May was expecting https://t.co/GUwhaMupbW
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) August 15, 2020
Realistically, Lawrence is not yet taking the place of Manu Tuilagi or Henry Slade in the England team, but he is certainly jockeying for position with the likes of Joe Marchant, who impressed himself on Friday evening, Jonathan Joseph and Fraser Dingwall to be that next man up and on the cusp of the matchday 23.
His involvements with Worcester and opportunities to catch the eye should only continue to grow, as he is now showing that he has those defensive, game management and decision-making skills to complement the undeniable attacking talent at his disposal.
Worcester have an enviable duo in Lawrence and Hill to build around moving forward and though their march toward challenging at the top of the table is still a way off, the growth of this pair should be celebrated by any and all rugby fans who want to see a more competitive Premiership, from top to bottom.
Comments on RugbyPass
Big difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to comments