WORCESTER Rugby Club's proud unbeaten record was shattered with a 20-9 defeat in a ferocious game at second-placed Leeds.

The match was dominated by the whistle of referee Ashley Rowden and four players were sin-binned during a clash which throws the Allied Dunbar Premiership Two championship race wide open.

Full backs Sateki Tuipulotu and Matt Oliver were both sin-binned seven minutes before the break, while Worcester also lost lock Dave Sims and centre Andrew Higgins in separate stamping incidents in the second-half.

Leeds Tykes' stand-off Jon Benson had kicked his side to a 9-6 lead at the break, his fourth edged his side further in front.

But the killer blow came ten minutes from time with a try from lock Tom Palmer.

Worcester never once looked like breaking Leeds down, but Sixways Director of Rugby Les Cusworth blamed the referee and the three sin-bins for spoiling the game. "With three sin-bins in a game you're not going to play with any pattern," he said.

"We're not going to break sides down with 14 men on the pitch -- there's no stability and balance.

"As you go through a season you get certain games when the officials want to put their stamp on a game, this was one and it proved crucial.

"There's just no consistency and how can you play a professional sport with that sort of thing going on?"

Defeat at Leeds last season spelt the beginning of the end of Worcester's Premiership Two championship challenge but captain Bruce Fenley is confident they can recover.

"We're still not even half-way through and this is only one loss and we've still got to play them back on our patch. I can assure you that will be different," he said.

"We've had some relatively easy fixtures and racked up a few points, but last week Leeds had a tough game at Coundon Road against Coventry.

"I'm afraid it took us time to come to terms with the pace of the game and by then we were playing catch-up rugby.

"It was a very tense start from both sides but we didn't get the best of and the penalty count. We didn't help ourselves in certain circumstances but it wasn't all our doing.

"At this standard it's hard to play with 14 men for ten minutes let alone 30 and Leeds rucked very well, moved the ball around and exposed the gaps."