Worcester 17-22 Montpellier

Worcester (10) 15
Tries: Sanderson, Wood Cons: Walker 2 Pens: Walker Drop: Staunton
Montpellier (15) 22
Try: Nicot Con: Tomas Pens: Schutte, Todeschini 4

Sanderson gave Worcester hope on the brink of half time

Worcester began their European Challenge Cup campaign with a home defeat against French side Montpellier.

The former runners-up trailed 15-10 at half-time despite captain Pat Sanderson scoring a 40th-minute try.

Montpellier, 13th in France's 14-team top division, extended their lead when Florian Nicot intercepted Joey Carlisle's floated pass.

Tom Wood crossed after a maul to reduce the arrears, but the score was in vain for last year's semi-finalists.

Warriors director of rugby Mike Ruddock told BBC Hereford & Worcester:

"We have had a good start to the season and expectations were high but we did not deliver.

"We probably tried to play a bit too much rugby, we wanted to move the ball but in fairness to Montpellier they just kept tackling and we could not cut them.

"In the first half we were struggled to make any line breaks and gave away too many penalties.

"I asked the boys to change our game plan and get into the corners a bit more, but we really didn't do that often enough."

Worcester: Latham, Garvey, Gear, Rasmussen, Benjamin, Walker, Arr, Mullan, Lutui, Ruwers, Bowley, Kitchener, Wood, Sanderson, Talei.
Replacements: King for Garvey (55), Carlisle for Rasmussen (57), Powell for Arr (47), A. Black for Mullan (34), C. Black for Ruwers (39), Gillies for Kitchener (34).

Montpellier: Schutte, Dall'inga, Smith, Nicot, Pratmarty, Todeschini, Tomas, van Staden, Ladhuie, Douglas, Demarco, Macurdy, Bost, Vallee, Giraud.
Replacements: Max for Smith (64), Alcalde for Pratmarty (77), Castell for Todeschini (56), Leleimalefaga for van Staden (50), Caudullo for Ladhuie (64), Kervarec for Douglas (64), Hancke for Demarco (50), Petitdemange for Vallee (72).