ARGENTINA international fly-half Ignacio Mieres put his accurate boot into Worcester Warriors as he kicked Exeter Chiefs to a hard-fought victory in the Aviva Premiership at Sandy Park.

An evenly contested encounter was full of passion and often on a knife-edge as two well drilled defences refused to buckle with displays packed full of endeavour.

Ultimately the fixture was settled by the perfect kicking record of fly half Mieres as he slotted every kick he took at goal.

However, Warriors showed huge spirit in the final minutes as they chipped away at the solid Chiefs rearguard and were rewarded with a losing bonus point as Andy Goode held his nerve to slot a deserved late penalty.

The joy of a losing bonus point in real adversity, though, was tempered by another injury in the back row as Matt Kvesic was stretchered off with an ankle issue early on and could now join Kai Horst-mann, Adam Balding and Neil Best on the sidelines.

Hill had spoken of the power of the home pack ahead of the game and Worcester got a taste of it within four minutes as the first scrum saw Warriors penalised by referee David Rose and Mieres slotted his first kick.

But four minutes later wing Gonzalo Camacho gave away a needless penalty, for not rolling away, and Joe Carlisle made the long-range kick.

Exeter abandoned their normal forward orientated game plan and looked to pull Worcester left and right with some neat phase play.

Worcester created the best chance of the first-half when Alex Grove raced down the right but failed to find the juggling hands of Garvey with the try line beckoning.

Chiefs responded with England international Johnson breaking down the left and feeding loosehead prop Craig Mitchell on the wing. The ball was then worked in field and, when Betty was penalised for not rolling away, the home side reclaimed the lead courtesy of Meires. Carlisle, however, stepped up to level the scores with another peanlty.

The end-to-end nature of the first-half continued as a big catch and drive from the Chiefs ended with a penalty which gave them a 9-6 interval lead.

As heavy rain started to fall, Exeter continued to run the ball through phase after phase until they forced a penalty for offside and Meires opened a six-point lead.

Poor decision making was undermining Warriors work and giving Exeter field position. They needed no second invitation and pressure told when Abbott looked to break out and the penalty went against the visitors and Mieres made it 15-6.

Garvey and Benjamin threatened to break into space as Worcester kept rattling through phases and they won the penalty for not releasing with three minutes to go. Under huge pressure, Goode held his nerve to slot the kick from wide.