LV= Cup: Wasps beat Worcester at Adams Park

The Londoners, who dropped their opening match to Cardiff, clinched the game through Charlie Davies' 72nd minute try. The teams scored three tries apiece with Wasps' Tommy Bell's three penalties separating the teams.

Wasps went ahead in the seventh minute, capitalising on a poor lineout throw by Worcester hooker Ollie Hayes. His poor throw cleared everyone before being gratefully collected by Simon McIntyre at the tail end of the line and he ran in unchallenged to leave Bell a simple conversion.

Carlisle missed a 10th-minute penalty for Worcester before Wasps were temporarily reduced to 14 men. Scrum-half Jonah Holmes was sin-binned by Welsh referee Rhys Thomas for failing to release the ball after being tackled as he fielded a kick near his own line.

The Warriors capitalised with two tries in a three-minute spell. Joe Carlisle turned the ball inside to put Alex Grove over in the 27th minute and they maintained the pressure, moving the ball from right to left before full-back Ernie Claasens joined the line to provide the final pass for Short to touch down in the corner.

Carlisle made amends for two earlier misses by landing the conversion from the touchline, but Bell's 31st-minute penalty cut the deficit to two points and, seven minutes later, he booted Wasps into a one-point lead with a superbly struck kick from the left touchline.

Wasps continued to dominate the scrums and six minutes into the second half they forced back-pedalling Worcester to concede a penalty, despatched by Bell.

The home side produced a stunning move to increase their lead in the 63rd minute. Moving the ball quickly from a lineout, Bell found Tom Varndell and his quickfire pass released Wallace who burst over in the corner, with Bell again successful from the touchline.

Worcester retaliated with a 72nd-minute try in the left corner by replacement winger Ben Howard, converted by Carlisle, but two minutes later Davies collected a kick by Worcester's replacement fly-half Andy Goode and produced a diagonal run for the corner to score an excellent solo try.