Saints add to Warriors' woe

Steve Thompson scored two tries as Northampton piled the pressure on Worcester.

Guinness Premiership, Worcester v Northampton, Sixways, Saturday November 11, 3pm.

Worcester Warriors slumped to their seventh successive Premiership defeat as Northampton Saints ran out 23-18 winners at Sixways.

Things are starting to get very serious for John Brain's men, who are now only two losses away from emulating Leeds' fatal start to the season last year.

To their credit, the Warriors battled hard but in the end had to settle for only their third bonus point of the campaign.

A brace of tries from Steve Thompson and an additional score from Mark Robinson did the damage for Saints, for whom Carlos Spencer also added eight points.

Aisea Havili and Tom Harding kept the hosts in the contest, but once again they were left to rue some costly errors.

Worcester went ahead on 11 minutes thanks to Havili, who benefited from an excellent catch-and-drive by the Warriors' forwards.

Spencer then took aim to nudge Saints ahead with two penalties, and they did not fall behind again from that moment on.

Robinson darted over for a typical half-back's try to give his men a 13-8 advantage at the break, before Craig Gillies' indiscipline helped Saints take a telling advantage.

After Shane Drahm had cut the deficit to two points, Gillies saw yellow for pulling down at the line-out, handing Northampton the initiative.

They duly obliged with a catch-and-drive score through Thompson, silencing the Sixways crowd.

However, Worcester were not prepared to lie down and back they came with a similar score from Harding - Drahm's conversion levelling matters.

Things became tetchy as the game reached its climax, but it was Thompson who stayed cool to coast over after a short line-out, clinching an important win for Northampton.