WORCESTER Warriors staged a scintillating comeback to salvage a draw with London Wasps at Sixways.

Director of rugby Mike Ruddock's men trailed by 14 points with 10 minutes remaining but - in a stirring climax - tries from Kai Horstmann and Dominic Feaunati, coupled with touchline conversions from nerves-of-steel Shane Drahm, secured a share of the points.

Despite the Warriors resurgence, Wasps almost broke the home side's hearts with a drop-goal on the final buzzer, but Dave Walder's effort skewed wide to cue scenes of celebration from the home supporters.

Warriors made a blistering start to the match, looking determined to make up for the handling errors which blighted their opening day performance at Bath. Marcel Garvey - one of the main culprits at The Rec -- went a long way to answering his critics with an expert piece of finishing in just the second minute. The ball was moved along the line to full-back Drahm, who had moved from fly-half to accommodate James Brown in the starting XV, and the Aussie threaded a pass to Garvey.

The former Gloucester wing turned on the gas before chipping the ball over his marker and gathering to score in front of the jubilant south stand. Drahm added the routine conversion to make it 7-0 to the hosts inside three minutes.

Drahm then spurned an opportunity to take Warriors into double figures, pushing a 43-metre penalty narrowly wide after Wasps' England contender James Haskell had been penalised for killing the ball.

Garvey was looking determined to put in a good performance and another jet-heeled break saw him cut inside and feed Drahm with the try-line beckoning, but the full-back couldn't quite hang on to the pass.

On 15 minutes, Wasps opened their account when full-back Danny Cipriani slotted a penalty from 30 metres out and five minutes later the visitors took the lead. Worcester were defending manfully but the Wasps' pressure on the home 22' eventually told as prop Pat Barnard was driven over in the corner and a pin-point conversion from Cipriani made it 10-7 to the men from Adams Park.

From then until the interval, Wasps took advantage of Worcester's frequent infringements to edge their score forward through the boot of fly-half Dave Walder, who had taken over the kicking duties from Cipriani.

Worcester were first penalised for going over the top at a ruck before slipping offside and, on both occassions, Walder punished them with three points to make it 16-7.

The hosts then had to defend the final eight minutes of the half with just 14 men as Tom Wood was shown a yellow card for taking his man out in the air at a line-out, but the defence held firm.

Despite the lack of scoring, the remainder of the half was not without action.

Belying their numerical disadvantage, the Warriors applied great pressure for the closing minutes of the half. Drahm hit touch with a fine kick from a penalty after Wasps killed the ball. From the line-out, Chris Fortey found Craig Gillies and the drive was on. Wasps infringed again, Drahm's kick found the corner and Gillies plucked the ball out of the air once more. Being roared on by the Sixways crowd, the Warriors pack tried to drive the ball over the line, but it was not coming out and referee Rob Debney brought a halt to the half.

The second-half began with Warriors being penalised for hands in a ruck and Walder put Wasps 12 points ahead from the 10-metre line.

Worcester managed to stem the flow of points in the 44th minute, when Tom Voyce put his foot in touch trying to field a Drahm punt down-field. From the resulting line-out, Warriors won a penalty and Drahm slotted the ball between the posts to make it 19-10.

Then, a fine Garvey tackle prevented Dominic Waldouck from putting Voyce through to score, but a knock-on was given to Wasps and from the scrum that followed, Haskell picked up the ball and charged over. Walder could not add the extras, but the visitors were two converted scores ahead with less than half-an-hour to play.

A sustained spell of pressure on the Wasps five-metre line saw the hosts win three penalties and, with the crowd baying for a penalty try, the referee whistled for a fourth time, but to the dismay of the Sixways faithful Mr Debney ruled against Warriors.

An inspired Ruddock opted to make three changes, bringing on Ryan Powell, Gavin Quinnell and Dominic Feaunati - a call which changed the match. Like Garvey, Feaunati was playing with a point to prove and made plenty of strong, determined runs.

A Garvey kick looked to have sent Thinus Delport over for a score, but Cipriani did well to clear his lines. However, it was only a brief reprieve as more Worcester pressure ended with Drahm sending a long pass out to Horstman who crashed over. The Aussie full-back was successful with the difficult conversion and Warriors were just seven points behind with less than 10 minutes to go.

With the tension mounting and the noise levels rising, the ball was worked out to the impressive Feaunati who shook off a tackle to score in the corner. The silence was deafening as Drahm lined up his kick, but the strike was true and the ball sailed through the uprights to tie the scores.