Worcester 35 Orrell 32

THE width of the wordwork helped Worcester limp home to a wholly unconvincing 35-32 win over Orrell.

Three tries in the final five minutes rocked Worcester to the foundations and but for two missed conversions their championship charge would have run into a brick wall.

They had played woefully for much of the match but there seemed little danger of defeat when leading 35-15 with just 10 minutes to go.

But Orrell had other ideas and dominated the latter stages only to be left thinking of what might have been.

Worcester's forwards soaked up the first bout of pressure but stand-off David Slemen then slipped in under the posts only to see his own conversion strike an upright - mistake number one.

Hooker Jon Hitchen then scrambled over in the corner and this time Slemen's conversion from the touchline bounced onto the crossbar and back to safety from the other upright - mistake number two.

Dominated

In injury-time, flanker Alex Bennett crashed over for the third only this time Colin Nicholson's conversion, which could have been for the game, was not enough to change the result.

Defeat may have been harsh on Worcester as they dominated in terms of possession but they were useless when they had it.

Time and again they went for route one when there were acres of space out wide, the handling and passing were poor and for the second week running they needlessly turned over possession in the tackle.

At one stage they led the try count 5-0 but Slemen kept Orrell remotely in touch with four penalties and a drop goal.

Tony Yapp scored Worcester's first try on 10 minutes dashing through a gap after a powerful surge by the forwards and he kicked the conversion plus a penalty.

But despite Orrell centre Michael Hitchen being sin-binned for killing the ball Worcester had to wait until two minutes from half-time for the next try, Sililo Martens sniping round the back of a scrum.

Things looked to have improved after the break with Sateki Tuipulotu coming into the line to score in the corner 50 seconds after the restart.

Tuipulotu scored then scored his second when Worcester finally span the ball wide after intense forward pressure yards from the Orrell line.

Just after the hour Worcester extended the gap to 20 points when Orrell dropped the ball on half-way, Rob Myler gathered and sent Nick Baxter racing to the corner.

Nobody knew it at the time but it proved the wining score on a freezing afternoon best forgotten.

Worcester: Tuipulotu, Myler, Woof, Connolly (Hughes 57), Baxter, Yapp, Martens, Windo, Richards, Lyman (Linnett) 57), Denhardt, Raymond (Lloyd 69), Cockle, Carter, Jenner.

Replacements not used: Sims, Caputo, Fenley, Tomlinson.

Attendance: 1,944