TONGAN wing Aisea Havili grabbed a brace of tries but a late fightback proved in vain as Warriors suffered a 36-22 defeat in the Guinness 'A' League clash with Leeds Carnegie at Sixways.

Havili showed his finishing skills and fly-half Shane Drahm also grabbed a try as Worcester rallied after trailing 28-10 on the hour.

But the accurate boot of visiting 10 Adam Greendale and missed opportunities proved vital as Leeds claimed a narrow win in icy cold conditions to dent any title hopes that Warriors had harboured in the Northern Conference.

Warriors kicked off in bitter conditions and were caught cold as Leeds scored from the from the first attack of the game after less than a minute.

A kick ahead by Jon Goodridge deceived Marcel Garvey with a cruel bounce and the visiting full-back collected before diving over in the corner. Greendale was short with his conversion attempt.

Leeds extended the lead on eight minutes when Greendale drilled a penalty after home skipper Tim Collier was adjudged to have come in the side at breakdown.

Worcester were guilty of sloppy errors in the opening minutes as they failed to assert any pressure on Leeds as they handed back possession with knock-ons and turnover ball.

Worcester enjoyed their best passage of play of the night when centre Alex Grove reacted first to scoop up a Drahm kick ahead. A penalty to the home side saw Nick Runciman go quickly to feed Havili and another penalty saw Drahm kick to corner as pressure mounted.

A line-out catch-and-drive was taken by Collier but as the pack rumbled towards the line the try was chalked off for a double movement.

The advantage soon swang back to the visitors when Greendale slotted a penalty after Worcester infringed with hands in the ruck.

From the re-start, Warriors finally found some rhythm and a quick tap-and-go found Jake Abbott who made a yard and then fed Havili out left who slid over. Drahm added the difficult conversion to cut the lead to 11-7.

Leeds were now struggling to stop the hosts from playing and a deserved Drahm penalty cut the lead to a single point at the interval.

Jonny Arr replaced Runciman at the break but it was Leeds who made the brighter start and when Graham Kitchener was sin-binned the resulting penalty was comfortably slotted by Greendale.

Leeds looked fired up and slick hands, combined with some miss tackles, allowed Martin Schusterman to run in under the posts. Greendale added the extras as the visitors took control with a 21-10 lead.

Andy Tuilagi then fed big wing Apo Satala who in turn released Goodridge out wide. The full-back chipped ahead and got lucky to collect the ball and speed over. Greendale added the difficult extras for a 28-10 lead.

Worcester again came agonisingly close with Havili held up as the hosts hunted a way back into the clash with Drahm kicking to touch twice in successive minutes to set up attacking platforms.

Finally the breakthrough came when slick hands from Arr, Greg Evans and Tom Wheatcroft released Havili who made no mistake to cross for his second of the game to try and set up an entertaining finale.

A break from Collier set up a thrilling attack with Evans and Grove linking up well before Phil Nilson was sent to the sin-bin for deliberately slowing the play down with hands in the ruck. A forward surge set up Drahm to peel off left and run in. The fly-half then dusted himself off to slot the extras to cut the lead to six points.

But the comeback proved a false dawn as Greendale slotted a late penalty and Satala crossed for a late bonus point try.

Warriors: Best (Evans 49); Garvey, Grove, Tucker (Wheatcroft 60), Havili; Drahm, Runciman, (Arr 40); Black (Gilding 74), Page, Ruwers, Collier (c), Kitchener, Quinnell (Cox 53), Abbott, Havea (Molatika 60).