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Worcester Warriors' Ollie Lawrence puts down noticeable marker in loss to Gloucester

By Alex Shaw
Ollie Lawrence breaks the line for Worcester Warriors against Gloucester. (Photo by Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)

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.

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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.

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Alex Grove | Channel Swim

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Alex Grove | Channel Swim

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.

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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.

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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.

Worcester Warriors Ollie Lawrence
Lawrence warms up for his Worcester’s first game since lockdown. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

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.

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.

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Jon 7 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 10 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

40 Go to comments
A
Adrian 12 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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