WARRIORS crashed out of the JP Morgan Premiership Sevens Series final night after losing both group games at Bath’s Recreation Ground.

The Sixways side suffered a heavy 35-12 loss to Leicester in the opening match and Tigers’ subsequent narrow Group ‘A’ win over Harlequins gave them an unassailable lead before Worcester had even played their second game.

Although it was disappointment for Mark Hewitt’s men, the club can take great heart from Warriors’ impressive showing in the regional stage at Gloucester’s Kingsholm stadium last week when they took a maximum 15 points from their three games to reach the finals night. Worcester kicked the finals night off in an opening game clash against an inexperienced Leicester side.

However, what the youthful Welford Road side lacked in age, they made up for in enthusiasm and they ran Warriors ragged with some enterprising rugby.

Rhodri Davies and Jake Farnworth crossed for breakaway scores in the first-half, which were both converted by Scott Steele, for a 14-0 interval lead but, crucially, Warriors skipper Richard de Carpentier was also sin-binned harshly for a high tackle.

With their captain off the field, Worcester struggled to contain the Tigers and they scored further tries through Ollie Turton and two from Stef Jones.

Centre Max Stelling grabbed both Warriors tries and converted his second with the final kick of the match.

The format of the competition, with two groups of just three teams, meant Leicester needed just a losing bonus point from their second game against Harlequins to secure a final place – and Warriors would have been eliminated after playing just once.

While the men from the Stoop took an early lead in the game, a sin-binning left them short-handed, so the Tigers clawed their way back into the contest.

Leicester’s David Williams scored with a fine show-and-go from the final play of the game and Tom Pointer’s conversion made it a 19-17 victory for the East Midlands outfit and sentenced Worcester to an early exit from the tournament.

In the dead-rubber against Quins, Warriors again came out second-best as unconverted tries from Jordan Burns and Miles Mantella gave the London club a 10-0 lead at the break.

Then, from the opening play of the second-half, Burns struck again from long-range to make it 15-0, but Warriors rallied back.

Firstly, Tom Chapman scored after good work by James Stephenson, before former King’s School Worcester pupil George de Cothi went over to make it 15-14.

However, Quins ran away with the game from there on in with Mantella and Charlie Walker touching down to set up a final score of 29-14.