IF A 40 hour trip to Biarritz doesn’t sound painful enough, the return journey may have felt even longer for Worcester Warriors as they crashed to an agonising 33-25 defeat in France.
Warriors appeared to be flying as they found themselves 25-15 in front after Thomas Synaeghel’s red card left Biarritz a man down with more than half an hour remaining.
But like many games in their turbulent season Warriors were unable to close it out as Teddy Thomas struck twice before Benoit Baby landed a last minute penalty to snatch victory and leave the visitors empty handed.
The defeat also all but ends their hopes of finishing top of Pool One, but director of rugby Dean Ryan said he was delighted with his players’ efforts.
“Losing is frustrating but considering the players had spent 40 hours on the road and had just three hours sleep, it was pretty impressive,” Ryan said.
“I thought the guys handled themselves really well over the last couple of days and for them to respond as they did tonight was fantastic.”
Warriors arrived in Biarritz just a few hours before kick-off after heavy fog cancelled their flight from London Heathrow on Wednesday.
But the disruption did not seem to affect Worcester who stormed out of the blocks and scored within the opening 20 seconds. Jeremy Su’a charged down Julien Peyrelongue’s kick to touch down, which Ignacio Mieres converted.
However, the French outfit were quick to respond as they levelled the tie with a Yann Lesgourgues try while Peyrelongue made amends for his earlier error to add the extras.
The scoring continued as Mieres slotted home two penalties to give Warriors a 13-7 lead with just a quarter of the game gone.
Despite going a man down when Synaeghel saw yellow, Biarritz step things up and closed the gap before the break, with Lesgourgues crossing the whitewash for the second time.
Peyrelongue edged the hosts 13-12 in front at the start of the second period, but Worcester hit back in superb style as Max Stelling latched on Ben Howard’s pass to score.
Warriors then received a further boost when prop Synaeghel was shown a second yellow card as the visitors piled on the pressure in the scrum.
This looked to be a match swinging moment as Ryan’s men quickly added a third try, with Paul Warwick going over.
But instead of building on their 25-15 lead, Warriors found themselves on level terms five minutes later as Baby fired home two penalties either side of Thomas’ well-taken try.
Despite the numerical advantage, Worcester were being forced into some desperate defending and their resistance was broken on the 74th minute when Thomas snuck over.
Fourteen-man Biarritz then completed the comeback with a penalty from Baby which denied Warriors even a losing bonus point.