One year on: Worcester Warriors win Premiership Rugby Cup

The thousands of travelling Warriors fans that made the trip to Brentford that night celebrated long after captain and Worcester boy Ted Hill lifted the Premiership Rugby Cup into the London night sky a year ago today. 

Worcester Warriors captain Ted Hill raises the Premiership Rugby Cup after their dramatic final win over London Irish (Image: JMP)

The noise that greeted the full-time whistle in extra-time of the final vs London Irish was years in the making. For a club that had never tasted true success in their professional history, May 17 2022 will be a date that will live long in the memory.

Supporters sang and celebrated in the stands, players were joined by friends and family on the Gtech Community Stadium turf and drank champagne from the trophy after what was a dramatic and remarkable final.

Celebrations in the stand continued well past the full-time whistle (Image: JMP)

Warriors had led 18-16 at half-time through tries from Matt Kvesic and Perry Humphreys, either side of Ben White's score for the hosts.

Try time: Matt Kvesic scored Worcester's first try of the night (Image: JMP)

Worcester Warriors' Perry Humphreys dotting down in the first-half of the final (Image: JMP)

Paddy Jackson kicked his 20th point of the match to make the scores 25-18 in the second-half before Kyle Hatherell crossed after a five-minute spell on the Irish line deep into stoppage time. 

Worcester Warriors' Kyle Hatherell scored in the 84th minute to send the tie to extra-time (Image: JMP)

Fin Smith's conversion sent the tie to extra-time and thanks to Jackson, rather incredibly, losing his nerve from the tee on numerous occasions in extra-time, Warriors won the final thanks to outscoring Irish in terms of tries; 3 to 1. 

The full-time whistle was greeted with huge celebrations (Image: JMP)

The scenes at the end, both on the pitch and off it in the stands, was something to behold for a club and team that could only have dreamed of this success after years of struggles. 

Fans were in the mood for partying after the full-time whistle (Image: JMP)

The feeling at the time was one of enjoyment but also one of excitement over what was potentially to come. Under new director of rugby Steve Diamond, the side looked to be on the up and with the star names of the likes of Ted Hill, Duhan van der Merwe, Fin Smith, Ollie Lawrence, Kyle Hatherell... there was so much potential. 

Unfortunately, that night now seems a long, long time ago. All the promise, the excitement, the belief, has all been drained since the club went into administration. 

Worcester Warriors went into administration in September (Image: JMP)

The players, the coaches, the staff, have all left and all that remains is the memory of that night in Brentford.

But the last word must go to Mr Cecil Duckworth. That night was all down to him and what he did to make sure this club could enjoy night like these.

Cecil Duckworth, the late executive chairman of Worcester Warriors.

And now, you shudder to think what he would be feeling now, seeing what has happened to this club he loved so dearly. Everything he did has been undone and who knows if it'll ever be recovered.

But at the very least, he gave everyone a night to remember and no one can ever take away the memories of May 17, 2022, when Warriors won their first and now, sadly, maybe their last trophy in their history.