Worcester Team
Worcester Warriors will travel to The Mennaye on Wednesday for the 1st leg of the RFU Championship final against Cornish Pirates in what is expected to be a tight contest, with only one point separating the two teams following an aggregate score of 54-53.
The away side won both the league games between Cornish Pirates and Worcester during the regular season and the Warriors will be desperate to keep the trend going when they head to Penzance tomorrow for the first leg of the RFU Championship final.
Promotion back to the Premiership at the first attempt is on the line for Richard Hill’s men who opted to play the first of the two-game series away from home.
Worcester came away from the South West with a 30-33 win on January 30 – three months after the Pirates had shocked last season’s relegated Premiership team with a 21-23 success at Sixways.
Worcester did win at home in the pool stages of the British Irish Cup but the form book points to a closely fought final.
Worcester survived an almighty scare at the semi-final stage to make it through to the final, overcoming Bedford 23-22 after fighting back from 16-0 down.
Collectively the sides boast five members of the Rugby Times Championship Dream XV, among them the competition’s two leading points scorers, Pirates full-back Rob Cook and Worcester fly-half Andy Goode.
RFU Championship final
Cornish Pirates vs. Worcester Warriors, The Mennaye, May 11, 19.45
Worcester Warriors vs. Cornish Pirates, Sixways, May 18, 19.45
Both legs of the final are live on Sky Sports HD
Championship final – extra time
The first leg of the RFU Championship final will compromise of 40 minutes of play each way, with no extra time should the scores be level after 80 minutes.
The winner of the RFU Championship final will be the team with the highest aggregate score from both legs of the final.
If in the second leg, after 40 minutes of play each way the aggregate scores from both matches are level, there will be a five-minute break before extra time will be played consisting of two periods of 10 minutes each way, plus any stoppage time. There will be a one-minute half-time break.
If the scores are tied after extra time, then the team that has scored highest aggregate number of tries in both matches (including extra time) shall be deemed the winner.
However, if the teams have scored the same aggregate number of tries in both matches then the winner of the final will be determined by a place-kick competition, where each team must nominate three players, who were on the playing area at the final whistle of extra time, to take part.
Each will take two kicks in turn from six designated positions on the field, and if the teams are still level at the end of the six kick competition then a ‘sudden death’ format will be adopted.