Birmingham Moseley 24-15 Warriors
Billesley Common
Pre-season friendly
WARRIORS suffered a shock defeat to National League One outfit Birmingham Moseley on a wet Friday night friendly at Billesley Common.
Director of rugby Gary Gold watched on as his side, packed with experience and first-team regulars, fell behind courtesy of a Buster Lawrence try following an early Sam Olver drop-goal.
Huw Taylor gifted the visitors a 10-7 lead at the break with a fine try, but a James Dixon penalty and tries from Ciaran Moore and Mark Harrison made sure there was to be an upset for the Premiership side, despite a late consolation score for Ben Howard.
The visitor’s were off the mark when Olver struck a drop-goal from the 22 metre line after Moseley had repelled the Warriors backline.
But it was not long before the hosts started to find their way into the game as they pinned Worcester back in their own 22, before Lawrence forced his way through after relentless pressure, with Dixon converting to give Moseley a 7-3 lead.
Both sides made handling errors in the slippery conditions as the rain continued to batter Billesley Common, but Warriors made sure they would have the half-time advantage when Taylor bundled his way over from close range after the visitors had camped on the Moseley tryline.
A much-changed side took to the field after the break for Warriors, but it was the Birmingham outfit who got on the scoreboard with an early Dixon penalty to level the scores.
The hosts had the ascendancy and bullied their way forward time and again, before Moore crossed the whitewash following good work from the forward pack just before the hour-mark.
Moseley then stretched their lead when Aaron Crofts broke through the Warriors defence and teed-up Harrison to dive over the tryline.
Sam Hollingsworth’s conversion put Moseley 24-10 ahead as the game started to get away from Worcester.
Howard gave Warriors faint home in the dying seconds when he latched onto a kick forward and slid over to score, but Moseley held on to secure an impressive win under the floodlights, much to the shock of the travelling supporters.
Warriors wrap-up their pre-season schedule with the visit of Munster on Thursday night (kick-off 7.30pm).