Worcester Warriors 30 Northampton Saints 15.

SUDDENLY life at Sixways looks a lot rosier after a Bryce Heem hat-trick guided Worcester Warriors to a long-awaited win in the Aviva Premiership.

The Kiwi flier’s final try at the death sparked wild celebrations from his teammates as they had not only ended a run of seven straight league losses but also moved Warriors off the bottom.

However, Heem should not take all the credit for this maximum point success as this was as complete a team performance as you could get.

From one to 15 and contributions from the bench, Warriors proved too strong for Northampton Saints who finished with 14 men after Rob Horne received a second yellow card in the last play.

There is no doubt fit-again duo Ryan Mills and Francois Hougaard played a huge part in the victory as they gave Worcester an air of confidence.

But the back three of Josh Adams, Chris Pennell and Heem did most of the damage with ball in hand while Will Spencer led the hosts’ forward charge.

Spencer was belligerent in the way he repeatedly smashed away at Saints’ defence and was backed up superbly by back rowers Alafoti Fa’osiliva, Sam Lewis and Gerrit-Jan van Velze.

As with any performance though there will be areas to improve on and director of rugby Gary Gold will be disappointed with his side’s kicking display as Jono Lance only landed three of his six attempts at goal.

He will also be frustrated with the way his team started the game as Saints opened the scoring courtesy of a fifth-minute Stephen Myler penalty.

Northampton held the edge in the early stages, but they were forced into a change when a dizzy Luther Burrell had to leave the field with a head injury.

This disruption gave Worcester a foothold in the game as Lance levelled the scores at the midway point in the half before they scored their first try. Mills slipped through and fed Heem who touched down.

Lance missed the conversion, but Worcester received a further boost on the half hour mark.

Horne was sent to the sin-bin following a high tackle on Pennell and Warriors made their numerical advantage count.

After mounting heavy pressure with a series of scrums, Heem smashed his way through a number of tackles to score which Lance converted.

After Myler’s long-range penalty fell short, Warriors went in at half-time leading 15-3 and they soon increased their advantage.

Lance struck another three-pointer before Adams sprinted away down the left, combined brilliantly with Pennell and then dived over in the corner.

The conversion was missed by Lance, but a buoyant Warriors were in control as they led 23-3.

However, Northampton refused to give in and reduced their deficit on 53 minutes when ex-England ace Ben Foden was found in space out wide to ease over.

After Lance went wayward from the tee, Warriors squandered a great chance on 60 minutes as Pennell broke only to knock the ball on as he tried to put in Adams for his second.

With three minutes to go, the visitors gave themselves another lifeline as Jamie Gibson scored under the posts and Myler converted.

But Worcester made sure they had the final say. After the forwards drove Saints back, Heem gathered Jackson Willison’s pass and powered over.

To add to Saints’ woes Horne was sent off following a tip-tackle on Lance before the try was given by the TMO and Pennell added the extras.