A DRAMATIC late try from teenager Ted Hill secured Worcester Warriors a memorable victory over Leicester Tigers in a pulsating Midlands derby at Welford Road.

The 19-year-old forward, making his Premiership debut, also crossed at the start of the second half as Warriors opened up a 26-point lead.

Leicester then produced a stirring fightback and George Ford looked to have denied Warriors their first win of the season when converting his own try late on.

But with a minute left on the clock Hill burrowed over in the corner and Duncan Weir completed a 22-point haul with the conversion to clinch victory and move Worcester off the bottom.

Director of rugby Alan Solomons made three changes to the side that lost 23-20 to Newcastle Falcons at Sixways last weekend.

Nick Schonert was reinstalled at tighthead after overcoming concussion, Jack Singleton replaced misfiring hooker Joe Taufete’e and Anton Bresler was in the second row alongside Pierce Phillips with Darren Barry dropping to the bench.

Warriors had been guilty of slow starts in their previous two matches but they burst out of the traps at Welford Road.

Ryan Mills was the first to break through Tigers’ leaky defence before Bryce Heem exploited another gap and Weir was on hand to score. The fly-half added the extras.

And Warriors bagged another converted try on six minutes. This time flanker Sam Lewis slipped through before Weir went over for his second.

Leicester closed the gap with two Ford penalties before Weir added another three points to his tally.

The Scotland international was having a superb afternoon as he played a starring role in Warriors’ third try.

A stunning offload from Mills released Heem who fed the charging Francois Venter.

The Springbok was stopped just short but Weir’s looping pass found hooker Jack Singleton who finished in the corner. Weir missed the conversion.

Warriors suffered a blow when Lewis was forced off with an injury on 26 minutes and Leicester struck soon after with Guy Thompson getting on the end of a driving maul to score.

Ford pushed his conversion attempt wide.

But Worcester hit back in emphatic fashion. Weir was once again at the forefront of the attack as he wriggled his way forward before Heem, Hill and Pierce Phillips were denied close to the try-line.

With Leicester’s defence sucked in, Warriors went wide with Mills finding Chris Pennell to secure the bonus point.

Weir failed to add the extras but landed a penalty on the stroke of half-time to give his side a 19-point advantage at the break.

Leicester had it all to do and they struggled to get going in the second period, making sloppy mistakes.

Warriors made them pay on 53 minutes after an overthrown line-out was gathered by Singleton.

The hooker was halted but the ball was recycled and Hill, who replaced the injured Lewis, hammered his way over from close range.

Pennell made the conversion to move Worcester 37-11 in front.

But Tigers responded with two tries in the space of three minutes. Firstly Jonny May raced through after collecting Ford’s chip before ex-Warrior David Denton burrowed over.

The momentum was with the hosts as they cut the deficit to seven points with 10 minutes to go when Jordan Olowofela scoring out wide. Ford squeezed home the conversion.

Leicester then levelled the scores as Ford sped through to score before making the conversion.

But in the final play of the match Venter broke before Warriors went wide and Hill scored the winner.

Weir completed the scoring with the conversion.

Warriors: Pennell 8; Heem 8, Venter 8, Mills 8, Adams 7; WEIR 9, Hougaard 8; Black 6 (Bower 60, 6), Singleton 8 (Taufete’e 66), Schonert 7 (Milasinovich 54, 6), Bresler 7, Phillips 7 (Barry 46, 7), Mama 8, Lewis 8 (Hill 26, 8), van Velze 8.

Not used: Heaney, Lance, Beck.

Tigers: Olowofela; Holmes, Tuilagi (Ford 76), Owen (Eastmond 44), May; Ford, Youngs (White 57); Bateman (Feao 67), Youngs (Stevens 67), Cole, Williams, Kitchener (Wells 65), Denton, Thompson (Lewis 76), Kalamafoni. Not used: Cortes.

Referee: L Pearce.

Attendance: 18,444.