Worcester Warriors 14 Stade Francais 23 (From Worcester News)

Worcester Warriors 14 Stade Francais 23

10:03pm Thursday 10th November 2011 in Match Reports By Tom Guest, @tomguestWN #WENsport

ON THE RUN: Warriors Chris Jones takes on the Stade Francais defence.

WORCESTER Warriors suffered for poor discipline as they saw the chance to claim a famous scalp slip through their fingers in the Amlin Challenge Cup at Sixways last night.

After a breath-taking opening to the game, in which the hosts left Stade Francais reeling with early converted tries from Chris Pennell and Marcel Garvey, the star-studded Parisians gradually wore the hosts down to claim their victory.

Argentinian international fly-half Felipe Contepomi landed six shots at goal as Warriors fell foul of a high penalty count in the second-half.

Recalled to the starting XV, club captain Pennell ran a superb line to burst over for the opening try after Dale Rasmussen had made ground in midfield.

Fly-half Joe Carlisle slotted the conversion as the Sixways crowd looked quizically at each other to find out if what they had seen was really happening.

The re-start was fired straight into touch and Warriors' impressive pack forced a penalty from the resulting scrum. Carlisle struck the ball expertly, but was marginally off target as his effort hit the right-hand upright.

Worcester were then in dreamland on 12 minutes when, in the blink of an eye, they went from desperate defence to under the Stade posts.

The Parisians were piling on the pressure in the home 22 when Pen-nell intercepted a loose off-load and punted into the acres of space in behind. Marcel Garvey’s searing pace out-stripped fellow wing Djibril Camara, before the Warriors wing showed ice-cool composure to dribble the ball over the line and touch down. Carlisle’s extras made it 14-0 in as many minutes.

Stade continued to look dangerous with ball-in-hand without breaking through the home defence. Their pressure was rewarded with a penalty following a powerful driving line-out, but Argentinian star Felipe Contepomi, playing at inside-centre, pulled his effort wide of the target.

The visitors then lost veteran Pumas loosehead Rodrigo Roncero to the bin for 10 minutes after a punch at Matt Kvesic.

Contepomi finally gave his side some presence on the scoreboard with a brace of well-struck penalties late in the opening half.

The closing minutes of the first period were a warning for what was to come as continuous Stade pressure forced Warriors into a string of errors, which were mostly punished by Contepomi’s unerring boot.

Prop Oliver Tomaszczyk was guilty of a needless push prior to a line-out, which allowed Contepomi the chance to bring Stade to within two points.

The vistors were now in control and another Contepomi penalty was soon followed by the visitors’ only try.

Pressure on Worcester line following a Contepomi break saw the ball worked wide to former England wing Paul Sackey, who had plenty of time to gather and cross the whitewash.

To rub salt into the hosts’ wounds, Contepomi’s sixth successful penalty, with six minutes left, robbed Worcester of a losing bonus point.

Warriors: Pennell 6; Garvey 7 (Claassens, 74, 6), Grove 5, Rasmussen 6 (Goode, 60), Arscott 6; Carlisle 7*, Perry 7 (Frost, 74, 6); Mullan 6 (Porter, 70, 6), Lutui 7 (Shervington, 60, 7), Tomaszczyk 7 (Taumoepeau, 55, 6), Percival 7, Gillies 7 (Balding, 70, 6), Best 6 (Betty, 60, 6), Kvesic 7, Chris Jones 7.