IT’S advantage Warriors at the halfway stage of their Championship play-off semi-final but they made hard work of it against London Scottish.

Having opened up a 17-3 lead after just 27 minutes at the Richmond Athletic Ground, Dean Ryan’s side looked to be in control.

But Warriors failed to build on their fine start, had their lead cut to just seven points at the turnaround by a determined Scottish outfit and found themselves trailing 22-17 with only 14 minutes left.

By the end, it was nail-biting stuff for their vociferous travelling support as Warriors camped on the hosts’ five metre line, eventually being awarded a penalty try despite continued transgressions from the Scottish defence.

Worcester will feel that their efforts in west London merited a lead heading into Friday’s second leg at Sixways.

But they were far from convincing and shot themselves in the foot with some poor discipline. Jonny Arr, an early replacement for the injured Charlie Mulchrone, Mike Williams and James Percival were all shown yellow cards, the latter barely 90 seconds after coming on.

It proved costly as Scottish captain Mark Bright touched down immediately after Percival had been binned early in the second-half and again after Williams had been pinged for not rolling away.

By contrast, a first-half yellow card for Scottish’s Mike Doneghan seemed to galvanise the hosts as they defied their numerical inferiority to score a converted try to begin their fightback.

As against Bristol, Warriors were also left to rue bad luck with injuries after scrum-half Mulchrone turned his ankle after 15 minutes and had to be helped off, joining Chris Pennell and Max Stelling in the treatment room.

At that stage, the Sixways side were looking good with Mulchrone playing a key role in their opening try, feeding Sam Smith wide on the right for the winger to dot down in the corner. Lamb’s conversion went wide.

Although Peter Lydon kicked an excellent penalty from inside his own half, Warriors crossed the whitewash again when, having been stopped in his tracks, Darren O’Shea offloaded to Cooper Vuna to score. This time Lamb’s conversion struck the post.

Despite Mulchrone’s early exit, Vuna’s second try moved the visitors further ahead. Lamb’s kick to the corner was fumbled by Matthew Williams on his own line and the Australian snaffled the loose ball to touchdown, Lamb adding the extras.

Scottish, without Doneghan on the field, cranked up the pressure and it eventually told when Jamie Stevenson barged over and Lydon confidently split the posts from wide on the left.

Arr joined Doneghan in the bin at the end of the first-half following dangerous play and Warriors’ discipline cost them again after the break with Percival shown a yellow.

Moments later, Scottish claimed a line-out, set up their trademark driving maul and forced Bright over. Lydon missed the conversion.

Bright’s 26th try of the season, converted by Lydon, put Scottish 22-17 ahead before Warriors began to turn the screw.

A 40-metre driving maul of their own took them to the five-metre line, leading to a scrum from which the hosts were penalised. It was then reset a remarkable five times before referee Greg Garner finally awarded a penalty try, which Lamb converted with the final kick.