WORCESTER Warriors suffered a heavy 64-28 defeat against Coventry Rugby on the final day of the Champ Rugby season.
Warriors slipped to their heaviest defeat of the season at the Nick Newbold Stadium as Worcester lost for the fourth game in a row.
The game proved a straight shootout for third place in the Champ Rugby table with Warriors forced to settle four fourth place.
And Worcester now head into the end-of-season play-offs with Matt Everard’s side to play fifth-placed Chinnor at Sixways Stadium in the quarter-finals.
Coventry made the perfect start when David Opoku-Fordjour scored the game’s opening try after just six minutes after Api Bavadra burst through the Worcester line.
And Barton then intercepted Billy Twelvetrees’ pass and sprinted the length of the field to dot down four minutes later as Josh Thomas converted.
The home side crossed again on 16 minutes as Jack Reeves collected Thomas’s looping pass to stroll in unopposed in the corner as the latter added the extras.
However, Worcester responded on 27 minutes when Josh Bassett scored from close range and Twelvetrees converted.
And Warriors reduced the deficit to five points when Bassett crossed for a second try six minutes later as Twelvetrees added the extras.
Coventry extended their lead early five minutes into the second period as Opoku-Fordjour made the most of an overlap to score out wide and Thomas converted.
And Opoku-Fordjour completed his hat-trick three minutes later from Senitiki Nayalo’s offload as the wing crossed for a treble in his final regular season fixture for the club.
After Thomas added the extras, the visitors kept themselves in the game on 59 minutes when Juan Gonzalez intercepted a pass and raced to the line and Twelvetrees converted.
Replacement Tommy Mathews kicked a penalty to stretch the home side’s lead before Allan Ferrie pounced on a handling error to dot down on 65 minutes as the former added the extras.
Coventry crossed again with five minutes left to play as Onisivoro Sukani Nayagi powered over from a driving maul and Mathews converted.
And Reeves scored the game’s final try on 79 minutes as he dove over the line in the corner to take the home side beyond the 60-point mark as Mathews added the extras.
Worcester host Chinnor in the play-offs on Saturday, May 16 with kick-off at 6pm at Sixways.
