FOR the first 20 minutes and the final 20 seconds, Worcester Warriors were far too smart for Doncaster Knights. What happened in between will have provided little comfort to the home players, coaches or fans alike.

After the match, Warriors head coach Richard Hill was quick to dismiss the northerners as mid-to-lower table battlers, yet they came mightily close to pulling off a victory in this Championship clash.

And they would have been good value for it — in fact Knights have every right to feel that they were robbed as it took an 88th-minute Andy Goode penalty to finally kill off their spirited challenge.

With the hosts racing along to a 17-0 lead at more than a point-per-minute with some scintillating rugby, supporters could have been forgiven for thinking that Warriors had finally clicked into gear and would actually produce a result that was the sum of their expensively-assembled parts.

The first-quarter of the game proved to be a dramatic false dawn, though, as the host’s scrum disintegrated under the pressure of a Knights fightback and the backs — so clincial to start with — began to play like they’d never met each other before.

Every set-piece became a long, drawn-out affair as referee Rowan Kitt, who favoured Worcester in the early stages, seemed to suddenly see things differently and frequently whistled penalties for the visiting eight.

Miles Benjamin raced over for his fifth try of the season after just seven minutes and Neil Best made a typical supporting run to benefit from Kai Horstmann’s hard running, while Goode improved both scores either side of slotting a penalty as the home side racked up an imposing lead.

Knights captain Neil Cochrane stopped the rot by barging over from a quick tap-penalty after 33 minutes, with former Moseley fly-half Tristan Roberts adding the extras. By that stage, Doncaster had got over their stage fright and realised they could match Warriors.

They continued in a confident vein after the break with a well-judged grubber kick going out near the corner post, before stealing Chris Fortey’s subsequent throw-in. Replacement number eight Andy Boyde was driven over for the score and Roberts continued to kick from the tee nervelessly.

Although the impressive Willie Walker, making his first start of the season, did pull a try back following excellent approach play between Jonny Arr and Jake Abbott, the momentum was with the visitors.

They were then able to capitalise on the sin-binning of centre Alex Crockett, who cynically hauled a would-be try-scorer back off the ball on the hour-mark to earn himself a 10-minute rest.

Roberts converted the resulting penalty and added another, before wing Matt Williams out-stripped Graham Kitchener on the flank and finished with aplomb one-handed by the corner post. The conversion rebounded out off the upright, but the visitors had taken a 25-22 lead.

Although there were only three minutes left on the clock, Warriors must be praised for not settling for a draw when they were awarded a simple penalty that would have levelled the scores.

Instead, Goode was instructed to go for the corner and the gamble paid off as they set up the catch-and-drive and academy graduate Abbott got his hands on the ball to be driven over.

That should have been ‘job done’, but Crockett was soon in Warriors’ bad books again, lying all over the ball — albeit he was covertly pinned down by Cochrane — to hand Doncaster a tough shot at goal which would have put them a point ahead with barely any time left to play.

Roberts stepped up to the mark, 40 metres out and five in from the touch-line, and stroked a superb kick through the uprights.

Silence descended over Sixways as the gravitas of Roberts’ effort sank in — the away side led 28-27.

The re-start was retained and Doncaster’s weary forwards set about a series of pick-and-goes that should have gone on long enough to see out the remaining injury-time.

However, they couldn’t have bargained that there would have been eight minutes of it and, eventually, were penalised at the breakdown 10 metres into Worcester’s half.

Goode stepped up and again banged the penalty to the 22, where the forwards boldly opted for a call to the back of the line-out.

Quick ball off the top almost sent openside Abbott over again but, crucially, referee Kitt’s arm was signalling an advantage to Warriors and play was brought back for a simple kick in front of the posts.

Goode completed the formalities, Kitt blew the final whistle and the Warriors players trudged off to the changing room for a dressing-down from Hill which was probably only marginally less hairdryer-like than if they had actually lost the match.