Wasps edge out Worcester Warriors in a thrilling 20-21 victory

Worcester Warriors 20-21 Wasps, Sixways
Scorecard

A better second half performance from Wasps saw them edge out Worcester Warriors with a 20-21 victory in the Gallagher Premiership opener at Sixways on Saturday.

Worcester started the game brilliantly racing to a 13-0 lead but Wasps slowly managed to pull things back and eventually managed to held their nerve to begin the new season with a victory despite having no Danny Cipriani and Jimmy Gopperth in the side.

Fly-half Duncan Weir kicked back to back penalties in the first 10 minutes to get Worcester Warriors off the mark and the lead soon became 13-0 by the end of the first quarter with Ryan Mills dotting down in the 16th minute that was improved by Weir.

Wasps did managed to open their account with Billy Searle kicking back to back penalties in the 28th and 36th minutes to end the first half with a 13-6 scoreline. It was also the first points for the fly-half in Wasps' outfit.

The home side lost their way a bit in the second half that started with a big setback when Alafoti Faosiliva was sin-binned in the 48th minute and Wasps captain Joe Launchbury made the numerical advantage count with a try two minutes later and a conversion from Searle saw them level the scores.

Despite being one man down, Worcester showed a lot of resilience when Sam Lewis breached the defence of the visitors to score the team's second try and Weir improved it to take them once again to a seven point lead but Wasps had other plans with Tommy Taylor diving in the corner but Searle failed with the conversion which meant they continued to trail 20-18 heading into the final quarter.

However, Searle made amends with a penalty goal in the 69th minute to complete a thrilling 20-21 victory.