MILES Benjamin ran in a hat-trick of tries as Worcester Warriors survived a scare at Plymouth Albion to record their first on-the-road league success since April 2009.

With Graham Dawe’s hosts having been routed 51-3 at Bedford Blues on the opening day to slump to the foot of the Championship table, Warriors were guilty of complacency in the early stages of the Brickfields encounter.

Albion were fired up and keen to make amends for their horror show and came flying out of the blocks, scoring the game’s first try after just four minutes.

Returning fly-half Alex Davies made the most of a hole in the Worcester defence that the Mayflower could have sailed through to put his side ahead, before booting them to a shock 13-12 interval lead with some impressive ball-striking in blustery conditions.

Despite dominating the second 20 minutes of the first-half, Worcester butchered a host of try-scoring opportunities.

Richard Hill clearly gave his troops a flea in the ear at half-time as they came out with more purpose and the introduction of seasoned internationals such as Andy Goode and Aleki Lutui off the replacements’ bench enabled Warriors to claim their first away league win since the 13-6 successs at Gloucester 18 months ago.

Head coach Hill gave his side just four out of 10 when they beat Birmingham and Solihull 48-3 at Sixways on the opening day and conceded the display at Plymouth ranked no better than a four-and-a-half as he watched his players struggled to exert any significant control on the phase play.

However, with Davies back prompting their play, Albion were much more organised as they were able to revert Mark Lee to full-back after he deputised at stand-off against Bedford and, more importantly, return the barn-storming Sione Tu’ipulotu to the 12 jersey.

The Tongan international was a one-man wrecking ball for Plymouth and it was his 52nd-minute sin-binning for a late tackle on former Albion full-back Tom Arscott that enabled Worcester to put the game to bed.

In the opening exchanges, Albion set their stall out to play 10-man rugby by booting any ball they got deep into Worcester territory. A sliced clearance by Joe Carlisle gave the home side an attacking platform and they went on to win a penalty 10 metres from the Warriors line which led to Davies waltzing over before slotting the conversion.

Warriors woke up three minutes later and responded with a well-constructed try that saw centre Rob Higgitt break the line before deft handling by Arscott and impressive second-row Graham Kitchener freed Benjamin to coast over in the corner.

Carlisle’s missed conversion meant the hosts led by two points and Davies soon stretched the advantage to five with a sweetly-struck penalty after Warriors failed to release in the tackle.

With 20 minutes on the clock, the home fans began to dream of causing a remarkable upset when Davies stroked another penalty through the uprights from the half-way line after Worcester had strayed off-side.

From then on to the interval, though, it was all Warriors and Benjamin’s power-packed burst past three defenders took him over the line, giving Carlisle a simple conversion to cut the Albion lead to just one point.

Although Worcester had began to improve the quality of their play, they still met stubborn resistance and, when they did break through, they were often stymied by the whistle of referee David Rose, who did little to endear himself to the visiting supporters.

After the break, Worcester’s attacking intentions continued to be undermined by their poor handling skills.

The combination of Hill utilising his power-packed bench and the sin-binning of Tu’i-pulotu boosted Warriors, but Goode’s missed penalty and Callum Black conceding at the breakdown allowed Davies to make it 16-12 to Albion with 20 minutes left.

Almost inevitably, though, the hosts tired and Warriors took control as Kitchener showed a real turn of pace to break through before sending Benjamin clear to complete his first senior hat-trick for the club.

Tevita Taumoepeau entered the fray on the hour-mark and had an immediate impact, helping the Warriors pack drive Plymouth back 20 metres to force a penalty, which Goode slotted from near half-way.

The England man was pulling the strings and when Canadian flanker and Albion skipper Sean-Michael Stephen - who was lucky to concede just a penalty and not have a 10-minute rest - cynically pulled him back after a grubber kick into space, Goode added three more to the Warriors total.

Goode made it three successful kicks in 10 minutes when the tiring home front row popped up in another powerful Warriors scrum, before Davies stopped the rot with a three-pointer of his own.