Warriors see off Sale

Worcester denied Sale their fifth consecutive Guinness Premiership win at Sixways with individual tries from Marcel Garvey and Miles Benjamin leading to a 24-18 victory.

The previous seven meetings between the two sides have seen the visiting team prevail but the Warriors broke that pattern with a well-deserved second home win of the season.

Worcester took tadvantage from their first attack of the game when Willie Walker slotted over a drop goal after only 90 seconds.

Flanker Tom Wood produced a powerful run through the middle after Nick Macleod failed to deal with a poor box kick from Ryan Powell.

Impressive score

Sale were able to fend off the attack but knocked on in doing so and from the resulting scrum Garvey saw off a feeble challenge from Chris Bell and evaded two further defenders for an impressive individual score.

Walker's touchline conversion was offset by a penalty from Lee Thomas, who was once again standing in at fly-half for the injured Charlie Hodgson.

Bell recovered from his defensive slip by crossing for Sale's first try after James Gaskell had held onto Macleod's nimble flick-pass.

Worcester, however, looked dangerous on the break and they should have scored a second try after Benjamin and Sam Tuitupou attacked from deep.

Walker let the scoring pass slip as he went over the line but went on to kick the resulting penalty awarded for an infringement in the build-up.

Thomas lost the chance to pull back three points when his penalty went wide of the target and Sale was then penalised himself for crossing, allowing Walker to put Worcester 16-8 ahead at the interval.

Catch-up

Sale played their best rugby in the second half with a 13-point deficit forcing them to play catch-up. Mathew Tait took a lead role in their comeback bid despite being let down by some clumsy handling by his team-mates.

Worcester gave away a series of penalties under the mounting strain but were awarded one themselves when Sale drifted offside, with Walker finding the target.

Sale continued to apply the pressure, though, and their efforts were rewarded when Thomas put over a drop goal with only 30 seconds left on the clock.

Worcester still had time to kick-off but Walker fluffed a late, late penalty, meaning the Sharks clung on to a losing bonus point for their efforts.