Five-try Warriors silence the Tigers faithful
WORCESTER deservedly recorded a first win at Welford Road to stun the huge Tigers support.
A brilliant start was backed up by fierce defence to help post a second surprise Premiership win following the scalp of Northampton last week.
Among the Worcester heroes were wing Josh Adams, who scored two first-half tries, and playmaking centre Ryan Mills, who also collected a crucial try in the second half.
Worcester won by five tries to three and were always a stride cleverer than Leicester who increasingly had to rely on forward muscle to offset some poor defence.
Gary Gold, Worcester’s director of rugby, promised his improving squad would not get too carried away by the recent turn of form after losing the first seven Premiership games.
He admitted: “Leicester had a lot of guys missing and we will keep our feet firmly on the ground.
“We want to improve week by week – hopefully we are making strides.”
Leicester, besides their absent England men, missed the work-rate and leadership of injured forwards in Dom Barrow and captain Tom Youngs who was concussed two weeks ago. Barrow dropped out after injuring his neck in midweek and had to hand over the captaincy to scrum-half Sam Harrison.
From the beginning the Leicester crowd realised Worcester were intent on continuing the form of last week. Their neat and slick play was the dominant feature of the first half though it still only earned a 19-17 lead.
Worcester had quickly gained a 12-0 advantage thanks to Alafoti Faosiliva’s try from a driving lineout and the first of Adams’ scores. The wing raced onto Mills’ grubber kick which left Leicester flat-footed. Chris Pennell missed the first conversion but completed the second.
Adams’ second try in the 37th minute was even more impressive as he charged on a diagonal run from midfield following a pass by fly half Jono Lance.
Pennell was alert to the cries of a forward pass and took a quick drop goal to stop the protests triggering referee Greg Macdonald to ask for assistance from the television match official.
Worcester led 19-10 having already been outgunned by Leicester when lock Mike Fitzgerald forced his way over.
Leicester’s never-say-die attitude produced a try at the end of half. It would have been easy to have opted for a kick at goal but the enterprise paid off to end in a score for Harrison.
Joe Ford, who converted the first try and landed a penalty in the 24th minute, improved Harrison’s try for 17-19 at half-time.
Usually, Leicester would expect to dominate. But Worcester quickly fashioned another excellent try from a sweeping move for Jack Singleton. With Pennell converting, Worcester led 26-17 and Tigers knew they had to raise their game.
A tense final quarter unfolded as Worcester lost prop Nick Schonert to the sin bin and Ford kicked a penalty in the 65th.
When Mills finished off another cutting attack, Worcester looked clear at 31-20 only for Leicester to raise hopes of an unlikely success when centre Gareth Owen wriggled clear.
Tigers finished camped in the opposing 22 but did not deserve a reprieve.