Worcester 10-23 Auch

Worcester’s bid for European glory was dashed on Saturday when they were outplayed in the European Shield final by French side Auch.
The English side’s hopes were effectively dashed in the first half as they conceded converted tries to Gregory Patat and Raphael Bastide. Their two tries and Jean-Baptiste Dambielle’s kicking moved Auch 20-3 up at half-time at the Kassam Stadium.
Daren O’Leary got a try back for Worcester but it was not enough. In his last game for the Warriors, he touched down in the 72nd minute after hooker Ben Daly sent him clear with the scoring pass.
Tommy Hayes added the conversion to his first-half penalty to ease the size of the defeat.
Worcester boss John Brain admitted the Shield was low on the club’s list of priorities ahead of kick-off.
As a result, a host of first-team players were rested, among them captain Pat Sanderson, and this was reflected in a wholly one-sided encounter. And Brain confessed after the match that he was not upset about the defeat.
“We don’t like to lose any match, so it’s a shame we were beaten. But it’s not the end of the world,” he said.
“Our only goal (this season) was to ensure we’d be playing top flight rugby next season and we’d already achieved that objective. We lost the game because we didn’t have a scrummage platform.
“Our problems in the front row towards the end of the season have been well documented and Auch scored 13 points from scrums.”