Worcester Warriors 13, Leicester Tigers 32 (From Worcester News)

Worcester Warriors 13, Leicester Tigers 32

4:41pm Tuesday 27th December 2011 in Match Reports By Tom Guest, @tomguestWN #WENsport

POWER-packed Leicester Tigers proved too strong for Worcester Warriors in all aspects of the game as they claimed a bonus-point Aviva Premiership win at a sell-out Sixways.

Despite being roared on by a 12,024 crowd, Warriors struggled to match the set-piece dominance and breakdown ferocity of their illustrious visitors, who touched down through Matt Smith, Toby Flood, Louis Deacon and Horacio Agulla.

Worcester briefly threatened to test the Tigers when Marcel Garve’'s 52nd-minute score brought the hosts into bonus point territory, but the Flood-inspired visitors cranked up the pressure to cruise to victory.

From the kick-off, Warriors struggled to get hold of the ball for any meaningful period of time and it took just four minutes for Tigers to open the scoring.

England fly-half Flood spotted a gap in the home defence on the 22, strolled through and sent Smith on a simple run to the line.

Flood, who was a central figure in the first-half, added the extras, before extending his side’s lead to 10 points after only seven minutes of the match with a well-struck 45-metre penalty.

The visitors were dominant in the set-pieces and ferocious at the breakdown, while Warriors seemed panicked when in possession, which resulted in handling errors undermining any promising positions.

Flood turned from provider to scorer on 22 minutes as a neat show-and-go saw him waltz through the Worcester defensive line to touch down, before improving the score himself for a 17-0 lead.

To their credit, Warriors kept on battling against their power-packed opponents and eventually opened their account on the half-hour mark when fly-half Joe Carlisle landed a penalty after Tigers were hit for offside.

As if they weren’t already facing an uphill struggle, on the stroke of half-time Warriors were reduced to 14 men when number eight Chris Jones was yellow-carded for pulling his man down at the line-out. Flood slotted the resulting penalty to send his side in 20-3 ahead.

In the space of four minutes after the break, Worcester looked to have rekindled their hopes of taking at least a point from the contest. Carlisle landed a 48th-minute penalty, before a great move from the hosts saw a converted try cut the deficit to seven points.

A superb offload from Dale Rasmussen kept the ball alive and slick hands sped the ball out wide where Garvey dived in at the corner for a try that was given after referee JP Doyle consulted the TMO.

But, from then on, Worcester struggled to get out of their 22 and England lock Louis Deacon was on hand to batter over for the score that effectively killed off the hosts’ challenge.

With time running out, Leicester ensured they took the full five points back to Welford Road when Argentine winger Agulla expertly chipped last-man Chris Pennell to gather and dive over the line.

Warriors: Pennell 7; Garvey 8, Grove 7 (Fatiaki, 64, 7), Rasmussen 7, Benjamin 7; Carlisle 7 (Goode, 64, 7), Perry 7 (Arr, 51, 7); Mullan 7, Shervington 6 (Lutui, 59, 7), Taumoepeau 6 (Tomaszczyk, 64, 4), Percival 7, Gillies 6, Betty 8 (Douglas, 79, 6), Abbott 8 (Kvesic, 59, 7), Jones 6. Reps not used: Douglas, Gulliver.

Attendance: 12,024.