WARRIORS were out-muscled by Northampton Saints’ power-packed set-piece as they slipped to a 27-18 home defeat in the Aviva Premiership.

For the first hour of the contest, Warriors had more than matched their illustrious opponents, but a Saints pack containing the likes of Soane Tonga’huia, Courtney Lawes and Dylan Hartley eventually wore the hosts down with a superb driving game.

Fly-halves Andy Goode and Stephen Myler traded penalties throughout the opening 60 minutes to see the game locked at 15-15.

However, Jim Mallinder’s men, who survived losing both Hartley and Lawes to the sin bin, capitalised on a yellow card for Warriors’ ex-Saint Neil Best to score two late tries and ensure Worcester finished the game empty-handed.

The home forwards struggled at scrum time and had no answer to Saints’ driving line-out, which delivered both tries – the first for back-rower Samu Manoa, the second a penalty try awarded by referee Greg Garner.

With Warriors slipping closer to the division’s drop-zone, head coach Richard Hill refused to countenance a looming relegation battle, instead choosing to focus on Friday night’s trip to Kingsholm to face local rivals Gloucester.

He said: “In the huddle after the game, the players were looking forward to Friday night’s game at Gloucester straight away. We’re playing some great rugby at the moment, but not getting the rewards for it.

“The players will be more and more galvanised as we go on and we will get our rewards at some stage. There is huge self-belief in the squad and it is an exciting time for Worcester as we are breaking the mould of the club’s playing style.

“Northampton played a bit like the Worcester of the old days and it was interesting to see the two contrasting styles. We will continue to play that type of rugby and it will click – we have seven more games to make it click and we have to start that on Friday night.”