Worcester hit bottom

Worcester coach Andy Keast has vowed his team will “come back fighting” against London Irish on New Year’s Day after they returned to the Zurich Premiership basement.

The Warriors’ 50-7 thumping at runaway league leaders Leicester sent them bottom after Northampton ended a nine-game Premiership losing streak in dramatic fashion by pipping Irish 22-21.

Saints leap-frogged Worcester as a result, but there are now only four points separating Worcester and ninth-placed Leeds.

“We will regroup and come back fighting for the Irish clash on Saturday,” said Keast. “We remain confident.

“I am not interested in Northampton. We could not do anything about what happened outside of Welford Road (yesterday), and all we could do was play against Leicester.”

Tigers opened up a nine-point gap at the top thanks to touchdowns from Neil Back, Geordan Murphy, Andy Goode, Daryl Gibson, Harry Ellis and Dan Hipkiss, while they were also awarded a penalty try and fly-half Goode booted six conversions.

Super-sub Shane Drahm was the goalkicking hero for Northampton, completing a stunning Saints recovery from 18-10 down midway through the second-half by landing three penalties and an injury time drop-goal.

Player-coach Paul Grayson was the catalyst behind Drahm’s appearance, making the decision to substitute himself at half-time.

“Paul came in at half-time and said ‘let’s put Drahmy on’,” claimed Saints coach Budge Pountney.

“He felt that he (Drahm) would be a better option for the second-half, and that was an incredible call on behalf of Paul. Shane has a real steel about him, and he stepped up to the plate for us again.”

Saints scrum-half Mark Robinson scored the game’s only try in front of a season’s-best Premiership crowd of 17,364 at Madejski Stadium, but Irish - assisted by 18 Mark Mapletoft points, including three drop-goals – looked home and dry before Drahm took charge.

Wasps put their recent Heineken Cup disappointments and Powergen Cup exit - the latter for fielding an ineligible player – behind them to consolidate second place with a 33-20 victory over Causeway Stadium visitors Gloucester.

The Gloucester camp though, were unhappy with referee Roy Maybank’s performance, which included the Kent official sin-binning centre Henry Paul, who was bizarrely off for 13 minutes instead of a regulation 10, and prop Christo Bezuidenhout.

Sale Sharks also kept themselves in strong play-off contention, defeating Bath 19-10 at Edgeley Park, while Jonny Wilkinson featured for an hour after going on as a replacement during Newcastle’s 15-11 triumph at Leeds.

England skipper Wilkinson played a starring role, kicking 12 points as the Tykes were watched by a club record 14,293 crowd.

Wilkinson’s first-half arrival was prompted by injuries to Matt Burke and Epi Taione, and Falcons boss Rob Andrew said: “Jonny came on earlier than we had planned.

“But he could have started, and he may start our next game (against Sale), but I will not decide until next week. It has been right for the club, right for him and right for Dave Walder (Wilkinson’s fly-half deputy) for him to come back slowly.

“Dave has played well for the club for the last 18 months, and you have to remember that we are just getting Jonny fit, and he will be going off with England and I will have to ask Dave to win games for us again.”

Tykes rugby director Phil Davies, while frustrated with his team’s defeat, added: “It was a fantastic crowd – just what we have been trying to build for the last nine years.

“Yorkshire is a great sporting county, and we think they deserve a top rugby union team.”