Worcester Warriors 27 Newcastle Falcons 13

THE battle for survival in the Aviva Premiership is hotting up and Worcester Warriors showed their mettle on Saturday.

With bottom club London Irish firing on all cylinders against Harlequins the heat was Worcester to find a response as they trailed Newcastle Falcons 13-6 at half-time.

A fourth straight defeat would have left Alan Solomons’ men in a perilous position going into the final three games of the season.

But Warriors stepped up to the plate as they scored three converted tries in the space of 13 minutes to turn the match on its head.

Back rower David Denton capped off a superb all-action display with a brace either side of a rare try from prop Nick Schonert to clinch a vital victory for Worcester.

The centre pairing of Ben Te’o and Jackson Willison caused Newcastle a heap of problems as Warriors upped the ante in the second period.

And with wing Bryce Heem and lock Will Spencer tirelessly smashing into tackles Falcons’ battle-hardened defence eventually broke down.

The introduction of fly-half Dorian Jones and scrum-half Michael Dowsett off the bench also proved decisive in the fightback.

Jones was making his first-team debut but the on-loan stand-off hit the ground running and looked full of confidence as he landed all three of his kicks at goal.

Despite the welcome win Worcester’s lead over Irish has been cut to nine points after the Exiles ran in four tries in an impressive 35-5 victory at The Stoop.

But this home triumph will give the Sixways side a much-needed confidence boost as they bid to secure their top-flight status.

After three successive losses, including a 58-25 thrashing at Sale Sharks Warriors were keen to bounce back in front of their fans.

And they did not take long to get off the mark thanks to a booming long-range penalty from Chris Pennell on three minutes.

Worcester were on top but Newcastle demonstrated why they were top-four contenders as they hung in there before taking the lead.

Toby Flood landed a penalty on 24 minutes and added another three-pointer moments later to edge Falcons in front.

Pennell had missed a couple of ambitious kicks from range before drawing the home side level with a penalty three minutes before the break.

But Newcastle delivered a big blow on the stroke of half-time when wing Vereniki Goneva charged in under the posts to set up a simple conversion for Flood to dispatch.

This could have knocked Worcester but the hosts then spent the majority of the next 40 minutes camped out in Falcons’ half.

Chances went begging as Pennell let the ball slip from his grasp when he went to touch it down after being tackled by Josh Matavesi.

The full-back also failed to find the target with a penalty from distance but Worcester’s persistence was finally rewarded.

After winning a five-metre scrum Denton smashed his way over on 63 minutes which Jones converted to level the scores.

Warriors had all the momentum as Willison burst through a gap before Schonert dotted down from close range. A coolheaded Jones added the extras to move his team 20-13 ahead.

Spencer squandered another opportunity when he fumbled the ball near the try-line but Worcester sealed victory with four minutes remaining.

Te’o sent his side on the attack before the excellent Denton powered over for his second of the afternoon and Jones completed the scoring with his third conversion.