Matt Everard Sets Worcester Warriors Up for Ealing Semi-Final
Worcester Warriors are into Saturday's Champ play-off semi-final after beating Chinnor 35-29, and Matt Everard has set his side up for a trip into the competition's hardest assignment yet. Ealing won all 26 league games and host the semi-final at home. Worcester now need another upset to reach the final on 31 May.
Everard on Ealing
Everard did not hide the scale of the task. He said his team will give "everything" to try to upset Ealing and called them "out-and-out favourites" after a season that finished with an unbeaten league record and a 30-point gap.
"The way in which they play, and clearly prepare, and what they've achieved throughout this season in regards to the unbeaten record makes them out and out favourites to win the competition," he said.
He added: "Credit to them, that is no mean feat, I think, in rugby, but also in any sport, to win that many games consecutively - they've had a superb season."
Worcester's route from Sixways
The quarter-final win over Chinnor ended a run of four straight defeats and kept Worcester's season alive at Sixways last weekend. It also came after they had lost both league meetings with Chinnor in the regular season.
That response mattered because Worcester had already been pushed close by Ealing twice. They missed a match-winning penalty in the final minute in January, when Ealing edged the league meeting by one point, and earlier this month Ealing won again 34-28 in the penultimate league game.
Everard, who took charge last summer in preparation for the club's return to competitive rugby, said after the Chinnor win: "I thought our physicality was superb. I think on the four games we didn't win we've just consistently reflected on where we're at and what we need to improve on," and "I've said a few times progression isn't a straight line, there's peaks and troughs but I thought we had a really strong performance."
Saturday at Ealing
The semi-final now puts Worcester in front of a side that has not only gone through 26 league games unbeaten, but also gets home advantage and has not played in two weeks. Everard said: "They are a Premiership outfit with Premiership resource and players. They've not played in two weeks and it's at their home ground, so all the credits are on their side in regards to being definite favourites," while the winners move on to face Bedford or Coventry on 31 May.
For Worcester, the immediate task is simple: carry the physical edge from Sixways into a game they are expected to lose on paper, and turn one more one-sided run into another result that keeps the season going.
