Warriors fight back to beat 11-man Bath
Worcester Warriors clinched only their fourth victory of the Premiership season as Bryce Heem scored a 98th-minute try against a Bath side who finished the game with 11 men.
Second bottom in the table, the Warriors appeared set for a heavy defeat as Bath stormed to a 19-3 half-time lead, 14 of their points coming from the boot of Freddie Burns.
However, Duncan Weir's penalty was followed by Heem's first try as Worcester cut the gap to eight points before the game turned further in their favour as Ross Batty was sent off for a neck roll.
Weir then knocked over another penalty to bring Worcester to within a try, with the Warriors subsequently piling on the pressure just a few metres out from the Bath line as Todd Blackadder's men tried desperately to protect their advantage.
But Max Lahiff, Lucas Noguera Paz and Aled Brew all saw yellow in the additional minutes, and a severely depleted Bath were unable to hold out as a long looping pass found Heem to touch down and Weir added the crucial conversion.
Worcester are now four points ahead of Newcastle Falcons after the bottom side were beaten again.
Harlequins celebrated Mike Brown's club-record 308th appearance in style by running in five tries in a 38-17 defeat of the Falcons to go third.
They leapfrog Gloucester following their disappointing defeat to Leicester Tigers. Jonny May scored twice against his former club and George Ford tallied 19 points for Leicester in a 34-16 triumph.
Leaders Exeter Chiefs survived a surprisingly tough test to go four points ahead of Saracens after their defeat to Sale Sharks on Friday.
Struggling Bristol were not expected to put up much of a fight against the Chiefs, who have contested the last three finals, but provided admirably stern resistance.
Exeter led just 7-3 at the break courtesy of Santiago Cordero's try on the stroke of half-time. However, a pair of Ian Madigan penalties gave Bristol a slender two-point advantage.
Yet Sean Lonsdale's try 14 minutes from time proved decisive in settling a hard-fought contest for the Chiefs.
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wel the crusaders were beaten by a queensland reds side that hadnt beaten them at home since 1999 and queensland reds partied like it was 1999
Go to commentsThink it was a great defensive performance by Northampton. They didn't have stage fright in the first half, the Nienaber defense smothered them. They limited Leinster to 15-3 in the first half. It could have been over by then. A great try from Leinster in the start of the second half looked to have sealed it. But Byrne missed another conversion. Northampton started trying little kicks behind the Leinster wingers. Leinster messed one and Smith brilliantly made the conversion. Leinster decided to tighten the game after Byrne missed a straight forward penalty. A few errors got NH into the 22 and they scored and converted with a few minutes left. Another brilliant steal from Lawes saw NH have a final attack which was turned over by Conan. A classic semi final. World record attendance of 82,300. Leinsters 3 week preparation warranted for this one.
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