 | London Irish 15 (15)
Tries: Staniforth (2)
Con: Everitt
Pen: Everitt Worcester 20 (10)
Tries: Windo, penalty try
Cons: Drahm (2)
Drops: Drahm (2)
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A 78-minute converted penalty try gave Worcester a hard-fought late away victory over London Irish. Referee Martin Fox ruled that the Irish front row had illegally halted the drive by a rampant Warriors pack.
Shane Drahm then added a superb 40-metre drop goal in the 80th minute before Irish launched a desperate but fruitless late assault.
Worcester had trailed for much of the match after winger Scott Staniforth poached two first-half tries for Irish.
A handling error by James Brown, Worcester's former London Irish fly-half, presented his old club with the opening try as the ball was hacked forward and Staniforth got his hand on it first.
Fly-half Barry Everitt converted but then missed an easy penalty.
The new cavalier approach of the Exiles cost them a try when Worcester number eight drew Hickey and collected a poor kick in midfield and ran through some weak tackling.
Centre Rodd Penney did well to get back and haul him down from behind but Worcester kept up the momentum from the breakdown to push prop Tony Windo over for a 28th-minute try which Drahm converted to put them level at 7-7.
A minute later Irish were back in front when French international flanker Olivier Magne hoisted a speculative kick and Staniforth pounced to get his fingertips to the touchdown.
Forward dogfight
Drahm cut the lead to two points with the first of his two well-executed drop goals three minutes later with Everitt landing a penalty for Irish just before half-time.
But their opportunist approach faded in the second half as they were dragged into a forward dogfight by Worcester.
Chris Horsman, the Warriors' prop, was sin-binned in the 46th minute for a high challenge on Irish flanker Kieron Dawson.
Then Irish full-back Delon Armitage followed him after being shown a yellow card for a blatant case of obstruction.
But, after they both returned, Worcester applied the final push to snatch victory.
Worcester director of rugby John Brain:
"We didn't play very well. It was an ugly win but we'll take the points. "Wins in this league are hard to come by and away wins are very hard to come by.
"We battled away. There were times when we were under a lot of pressure but we came through."
London Irish captain Mike Catt:
"We know where we went wrong - we weren't clinical enough. "We tried to do too many things rather than stick to the basics which brought us four tries against Leeds last week.
"But it won't stop us from playing an attacking game."
London Irish: Armitage, Staniforth, Penney, Catt, Bishop, Everitt, Willis, Hatley, Russell, Hardwick, Casey, Roche, Magne, Dawson, Murphy.
Replacements: Geraghty for Armitage (80), Collins for Hatley (65), Flavin for Russell (5), Skuse for Hardwick (40).
Not Used: Strudwick, Gustard, Hodgson.
Sin Bin: Armitage (54).
Worcester: Delport, Hylton, Rasmussen, Lombard, Hinshelwood, Brown, Gomarsall, Windo, van Niekerk, Horsman, Murphy, Gillies, Vaili, Sanderson, Hickey.
Replacements: Drahm for Brown (23), Powell for Gomarsall (67), McDonald for van Niekerk (52), C. Fortey for Vaili (52).
Not Used: Collier, Horstmann, Tucker.
Sin Bin: Horsman (47).
Att: 7,118
Ref: M Fox (RFU).
MMIX
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