Worcester RFC suffered just their second defeat of the season as they were beaten 22-12 by Hereford at Westons Field on Saturday.

Worcester had recovered from going 8-0 down early on to lead 12-8 at the break thanks to tries from former Worcester Warriors Afeafe Lokotui and winger Tom Lawley.

But Hereford responded in the opening 20 minutes of the second-half and pulled ten points clear after scores from Jack Goodwin and Mark Philo.

The visitors leapfrog their opponents into second in the Regional 2 West Midlands table and stretch their winning run to six games to begin the new 2022/23 season.

Heading into the game, both sides had almost identical league records, with the two teams both having won five of their six games to start the campaign.

But it was Hereford who settled first and their powerful pack of forwards provided fly-half Wright with the opportunity to kick a straight-forward penalty to make it 0-3.

The visiting pack of forwards continued to dominate and after a surging rolling maul and some textbook offloading, flanker J Goodwin crashed over.

Worcester were clearly up against it but managed to work their way back into the contest and scored their opening try of the afternoon as Lokotui glided through the Hereford midfield to touch down.

It remained a tight game as the half wore on, with Hereford a force to be reckoned with upfront and Worcester posing a threat out wide.

But with a few minutes left in the first-half, the home side won a string of penalties and after kicking to the corner, the ball was worked out wide to winger Lawley, who ran in the try from 10 metres out.

The conversion meant Worcester took a four-point lead into the sheds.

Hereford, as they did in the first-half, started with purpose and they retook the lead with 50 minutes on the clock when their effective driving maul game provided their second try of the day.

The conversion handed the lead back to the away team and they built on that advantage with an hour played as centre Philo powered through under the posts to give them some breathing space at 22-12.

Worcester's handling left plenty to be desired and despite some sustained periods of play in the Hereford 22, they could not make it pay and Hereford held on for the victory.