WORCESTER Warriors finally kicked their losing habit as they held out for a hard earned 21-16 victory in the LV= Cup at Cardiff Arms Park.
Without a win in all competitions since March, Warriors’ hardy supporters have had to endure a succession of disappointing days.
And they came close to suffering further heartache as Worcester almost let slip a 21-6 lead at half-time against a youthful Cardiff side on Friday night.
But first half tries from Rob O’Donnell, James Stephenson and Max Stelling proved to be enough as Worcester applied what could be the perfect remedy to cure their sorry season.
Try-scorer Stephenson certainly seems to think so as he celebrated his debut by helping his new side record their first victory of the campaign.
“A win is a definite change in mentality. It’ll boost confidence and it’ll show we can come off this run,” Stephenson said.
“It will lift everyone and it’s going to change things. We will go in on Sunday and look at it and you know there will be some smiles on people’s faces.”
With a number of star names missing from Cardiff’s team-sheet, Warriors, who also made several changes, knew they had a real chance to claiming that elusive win.
But with Dean Ryan’s men so low in confidence nothing was going to come easy. And that was made clear in the opening stages as Ignacio Mieres saw his penalty effort cannon off the post before the visitors spurned a try-scoring opportunity, while Gareth Davies kicked six points to give Blues the lead.
But Warriors were in determined mood and they soon forced their way over the whitewash when prop O’Donnell touched down, which Mieres converted.
Having made 12 changes to the side which lost to Bath, director of rugby Ryan handed many players the chance to stake their claim for an Aviva Premiership appearance.
And it appeared to be working as Stephenson, who joined Worcester in the summer, showed his raw ability when he outpaced Dan Fish to score. Mieres added the extras to give Warriors a 14-6 lead.
The shackles seemed to be off the visitors as they began to dominate proceedings. They then capped off a superb first half performance with a well-taken try from Max Stelling, which Mieres converted.
But moments before the break Worcester suffered a double blow as Chris Jones was sin-binned and Stephenson took a knock, which meant Ryan was forced to make a number of changes to his side at half-time.
This gave Cardiff the chance to get themselves back in the contest and they quickly reduced the deficit when Thomas Young went over the 52nd minute.
Simon Humberstone landed the conversion before adding a penalty ten minutes later to leave Warriors’ fans on the edge of their seats.
With only five points separating the two sides, the hosts continued to power forward, but Worcester remained resilient to secure a much-needed victory.