WORCESTER Warriors suffered an agonising 31-26 defeat in a sudden-death play-off in their Premiership Rugby Sevens Cup quarter-final against Exeter Chiefs at Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton.

Warriors appeared to be heading for a semi-final meeting with Saracens when 17-year-old scrum-half Ollie Wynn burst through for their fourth try which Nick David converted.

With three minutes of normal time remaining Warriors led 26-12 but Exeter scored two converted tries to take the match into extra-time.

The experienced Max Bodilly went over for the first and scored close enough to the posts to leave a simple conversion.

But Luke Mehson’s last-gasp effort left Morley with a more difficult drop-kicked conversion to level the scores.

He found the target and that took the game into extra-time with Bodilly’s hat-trick try deciding the contest as the first score in the sudden-death period.

Having finished second after Friday’s pool stage, Exeter were well-fancied for the quarter-final but Warriors, who progressed as the seventh-ranked side, were well organised and took a second-minute lead when Reece Beddows, guesting from Stourbridge, cut through for the opening try which David converted.

Exeter responded with an unconverted try from Arthur Realton and went ahead when Warriors were a man down after Beddows was sin-binned for a high tackle and Bodilly exploited the overlap.

Warriors were still a man light when Isireli Sema made a half break and set up David for a long-range try on the stroke of half-time which Gareth Simpson converted to secure a two-point advantage.

Warriors stretched the lead when Exeter tried to run the ball from behind the posts but were blown for a forward pass.

From the resulting five-metre scrum Wynn fed Simpson who ghosted through for an uncoverted try which was quickly followed by Wynn’s own try when he beat off one tackle and accelerated away to score near the posts.

But with a semi-final place beckoning and the clock running down Exeter managed to retain possession and make the pressure count.