Worcester (16) 24
Tries: Garvey, Benjamin Con: Walker Drop-goal: Walker Pens: Walker 3
Sale (8) 18
Tries: Bell, Tait Con: Wigglesworth Drop-goal: Thomas Pen: Thomas

Benjamin's try at the start of the second half put his side in control

Worcester climbed up the Premiership table with a hard-fought win over Sale.

The home side were 10-0 up inside the opening 13 minutes with Willie Walker's drop-goal and Marcel Garvey's try.

Sale responded through a Lee Thomas penalty and Chris Bell's try, but two Walker penalties had Worcester in a deserved 16-8 half-time lead.

Miles Benjamin crossed early in the second half to extend Worcester's lead, but Mathew Tait cut the gap for Sale only for Walker's penalty to seal it.

Thomas grabbed a 79th-minute drop-goal for Sale to ensure they could at least take a losing bonus point with them.

It was a game peppered with moments of individual brilliance with Tait, Garvey and Benjamin all showing their running skills for their respective tries.

Worcester boss Mike Ruddock:

"There are a lot of battered players in the changing room. We had to make 143 tackles at Wasps last week and I guess we probably matched that today.

"I would love to win without having to encompass that workload in defence, but if that's what it takes then that's what we will do.

"The main goal today was to win at home and build a fortress here and make it difficult for teams to come here and win."

Sale boss Kingsley Jones:

"Our game management at crucial times was not good. To come away from home and concede a try early on, a soft try, and then to concede early in the second half was poor.

"We did it last week when we switched off at crucial stages of the game. If you do that you can't catch up.

"You can't play naively and I thought two or three individuals didn't perform particularly well and put us in difficult positions at crucial times."

Worcester: Latham; Garvey, Grove, Tuitupou, Benjamin; Walker, Powell; Mullan, Lutui, Taumoepeau, Rawlinson, Gillies, Wood, Sanderson, Talei.
Replacements: Gear for Benjamin (69), Fortey for Lutui (68), Ruwers for Taumoepeau (61), Kitchener for Gillies (66).
Not Used: A. Black, Cox, Arr, Carlisle.

Sale: Macleod; Cueto, M Tait, Bell, Ripol; Thomas, Wigglesworth; Sheridan, M Jones, Roberts, Cockbain, Schofield, Gaskell, Seymour, C Jones.
Replacements: Tuilagi for Bell (52), Forster for Sheridan (60), Schwalger for M Jones (66), D. Tait for Cockbain (57).
Not Used: Kerr, Briggs, Cliff, Kennedy.

Att: 9,510

Ref: R Debney (RFU).

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