Peel nous unravels Worcester

Worcester 20 Sale 37

The call-up of Dwayne Peel to the Wales Six Nations squad removed an early headache for Sale's new director of rugby Kingsley Jones.

Jones and his predecessor Philippe Saint-André have been juggling with two international scrum-halves, Peel and his rival, England's Richard Wigglesworth, all season, rotating them and trying to keep the pair happy.

But, having just watched his team cruise into third in the Premiership after an entertaining and hard-fought bonus point victory over Worcester at Sixways in his first match in charge, Jones admitted: "It's not easy. Scrum-half is the hardest position for me to manage at the moment.

"I am not sure that the policy of rotating those two good players has worked out. I think we need to give one of them a run. Richard and Dwayne know the situation, at this level they are always going to have competition. But we have to face up to the fact that Dwayne Peel is a world-class half-back, and if he's playing at his best he's arguably one of the best in the world.

"Richard's got a lot more to come. And the bigger the occasion the bigger Richard has played."

There is certainly no question of getting rid of either player. Wigglesworth is on the point of extending his contract, Peel is in the early stages of his three-year contract. And Jones insisted: "If we're going to be successful we need two quality players."

Peel was on form against Worcester, and drew praise from former Wales coach Mike Ruddock, now in charge at Worcester. "I am a big Dwayne Peel fan. As far as I am concerned he is the No 1 scrum-half in Wales. His pace is just incredible, it makes him such a dangerous player and hard to mark. But there is a lot of competition for the Wales scrum-half berth, with some fine players."

Worcester are not without their good players too, fly-half Joe Carlisle among them. But the loss of their full-back Chris Latham screwed up their kicking game and lost them a cool and experienced head when it was needed.

Latham jarred his neck and spine in a big collision, suffering temporary loss of feeling in his limbs and although the symptoms swiftly passed, he was sent to hospital for scans and X-rays.

"The loss of Chris was a big factor," added Ruddock. "Our kicking game let us down after that."

The other injury worry was Sale's Mathew Tait, who limped off after an hour, thankfully he was only suffering from cramp. Despite the pointless defeat Worcester stay in 10th with a game in hand and with the players to steer clear of relegation.

Worcester: Tries Latham, Garvey; Conversions Carlisle 2; Penalties Carlisle 2. Sale: Tries C Jones, Ripol, Briggs, Bell; Conversions Hodgson 4; Penalties Hodgson 2; DG Hodgson.

Worcester: C Latham (L Crichton, 21); R Gear, H Luscombe, D Rasmussen, M Garvey; J Carlisle, R Powell; M Mullan, A Lutui (C Fortey, 73), T Taumoepeau, G Rawlinson, W Bowley (C Gillies, 52), N Talei (T Wood, 77), P Sanderson (capt), K Horstmann.

Sale: N McLeod; C Bell, M Tait (R Keil, 66), L Thomas, O Ripol; C Hodgson, D Peel (R Wigglesworth, 69); L Faure (S Turner, 68), S Bruno (M Jones, 56), E Roberts, S Chabal (J White, 35), D Schofield, C Jones (D Tait, 61), N Briggs, J-M Fernandez-Lobbe (capt).

Referee: R Debney (Leicestershire)