WORCESTER Warriors slumped on their travels in France with a 29-14 defeat to Bourgoin in Pool Three of the European Challenge Cup.

Tries in either half from centre Alex Grove and hooker Aleki Lutui were not enough to lift the mood on a miserable night for Mike Ruddock’s men, who remain one point clear in Pool Three.

Worcester trailed 13-0 early on, but clawed it back to 13-7 at the break. But Bourgoin pressed home their superiority in the second-half.

The Warriors had already won in Italy and Romania and, despite having All Black star Rico Gear in their line-up, failed to claim a hat-trick of away successes.

The big worry for Warriors, however, was the injury to Miles Benjamin. The young wing was carried off mid-way through the first-half with a suspected broken leg.

London Irish cruised to a third successive bonus-point triumph with a 38-0 win over Dax in Pool One.

Sailosi Tagicakibau and Alfredo Lalanne grabbed a brace of tries in either half while scores by Shane Ger-aghty and Bob Casey rounded off a comprehensive victory in the south west of France.

The Exiles made light work of atrocious conditions at the Stade Maurice Boyau to run in six tries to sail towards the quarter-final stages.

The convincing win for the Guinness Premiership leaders leaves them 11 points clear of their rivals Rovigo and Connacht who now face a crunch clash in Italy tomorrow.

Brive hammered El Salvador 84-6 in Pool Four to move above Italian side Overmach Parma.

The French outfit ran in 14 tries including four for Norman Ligairi and hat-tricks for Ben Johnston and Regis Bianco as the Spanish side were put to the sword.

Meanwhile, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe starred with two first-half tries as Sale claimed a bonus-point win over Montau-ban to climb to the top of Pool One in the Heineken Cup.