WORCESTER Rugby Club survived a scare before scoring a crucial 30-22 victory against Midlands rivals Moseley at Sixways.

They cruised into a early 10-0 lead, fell behind by half-time, but recovered for a crucial win which takes them back to the top of Premiership Two as Leeds' game at Wakefield was postponed.

Moseley contributed fully to an open, if mistake-strewn game, and also matched their hosts try count of three including one for former Worcester scrum-half Steve Powell who was making his first start for his new club.

"Moseley were very committed, made life difficult for us and it's fair to say we played with more confidence earlier in the season," said Worcester's Director of Rugby Les Cusworth.

"But you have to win games like these and we've now ended a sequence of 13 games with just two losses.

"Ball retention is still a problem while Moseley had a lot of heart, and spirit and a fair degree of organisation and you can't roll these sides over.

"This was always going to be Moseley's cup final as they had former Worcester lads there with points to prove and I thought their back row was superb.

"It's a good win but there are still too many errors in our game and we're striving for the continuity we had earlier in the season.

"If we were on top of our form we would have wiped them out but we weren't today."

Powell's try after 22 minutes was Moseley's second score in five minutes and helped them recover from an early 10-point deficit to build a 14-10 lead.

Although scrum-half Powell relished playing back at Sixways he said he took little satisfaction because of the result.

"I signed for Moseley four weeks before the Worcester game and it was always at the back of my mind," he said.

"But the try doesn't mean anything to me because we lost, it would have only meant a lot if we had won.

"And we're disappointed because we thought we could have won it after taking the lead, but they scored a try just after the break brought them back into it."