The Guinness Premiership game between Worcester Warriors and Harlequins at Sixways Stadium on Saturday Oct 24, 2009.
Nick Easter, due on parade for England in next month's autumn internationals, departed Worcester on crutches on Saturday evening night and the chances of the Harlequins No 8 making a swift recovery from a pulled calf muscle appeared to be in considerable doubt.
John Kingston, the Quins head coach, summed up the lates! t bad news for England in the run-up to the Tests against Australia, Argentina and New Zealand beginning on Saturday week, when he said: "Nick has pulled a calf muscle and he's on crutches. How many weeks he'll be out I don't know but there'll be question marks over his participation in those matches."
Easter, who earlier had a hand in a try and pulled off a couple of tremendous tackles as Quins fought their way to victory, went down injured just after the half hour and was assisted from the field. Kingston added: "He rarely gets hurt but by an odd coincidence he suffered a bad injury here two years ago."
Apart from that, Kingston was well satisfied with his side's effort. They stuck it out throughout a highly physical game and while it was not pretty Kingston said: "It's hard winning down here and we're now unbeaten in three league matches. We're getting back on track."
Easter, meanwhile, had! contributed to the opening try of the afternoon. Quins had! earned themselves territorial advantage after a Nick Evans penalty miss, but while that was let-off for Worcester, they promptly failed to roll away in the tackle.
This time, Quins opted for a kick to touch and Easter took a clean line-out catch. A drive and a ruck later and Danny Care escaped the clutches of the Worcester defenders to leave Evans with a simple conversion.
Points-wise, the rest of the half was a kicking duel between Evans and Willie Walker, who kept Worcester in the hunt with two penalties followed by a dropped goal on the stroke of half-time.
Thereafter, Quins continued to set the pace with a try from Mike Brown and a conversion and two penalties from substitute fly-half Rory Clegg, though Worcester gained a bonus point at the last with a try from Callum Black.
Match details
Scores: 5-0 Care try, 7-0 Evans con, 7-3 Walker pen, 10-3 Evans pen, 10-6 Walker pen, ! 13-6 Evans pen, 13-9 Walker dg, 13-12 Walker pen, 16-12 Clegg pen, 21-12 Brown try, 23-12Clegg con, 23-15 Walker pen, 26-15 Clegg pen, 26-20 C Black try, 26-22 Walker con.
Worcester: C Latham; R Gear, A Grove, S Tuitupou, M Benjamin; W Walker, R Powell (J Arr 70); A Black (J Gilding 59), A Lutui (C Fortey 63), T Taumoepeau (C Black 19), G Rawlinson, C Gillies (W Bowley 63), T Wood, N Talei (J Collins 74), P Sanderson (capt).
Harlequins: M Brown; D Strettle (J Drauniniu 77), G Lowe, N Mordt, U Monye; N Evans (R Clegg 57), D Care; C Jones (C Brooker 62), T Fuga, J Andress (J Johnston 62), J Percival (L Stevenson 79), G Robson, C Robshaw, N Easter (capt, T Guest 31, Stevenson 63-67), N McMillan.
Sin-bin: Jones 31.
