Gloucester hold off fightback

Worcester Warriors remain winless in the Premiership after a second-half fightback fell short in a 24-19 derby victory for Gloucester.

Though the visitors did claim a losing bonus point for their efforts, they could not avoid a fourth consecutive defeat after narrowly failing to overturn a 24-6 deficit.

Gloucester took a 10-0 lead through Billy Burns’ penalty and Ollie Thorley’s first try, which saw him latch on to an excellent offload by Jason Woodward, with both of those scores coming when Donncha O’Callaghan was in the sin bin.

Thorley flew down the left wing to add his second following a 22-metre restart from Worcester, with Burns’ conversion making it 17-0.

Full Time @gloucesterrugby 24-19 @WorcsWarriors pic.twitter.com/w3mgklncgE

— Gloucester Rugby ? (@gloucesterrugby) September 22, 2017

A pair of Ryan Mills penalties got Worcester on the board before half-time, but just a minute into the second period Gloucester went over again with a try-of-the-season contender.

Half-time replacement Henry Trinder surged through the Worcester defence from his own 22 before exchanging passes with Will Heinz and offloading for Billy Twelvetrees to go underneath the posts.

Mills’ cross-field kick was collected by Perry Humphreys for Worcester’s first try on the hour mark as they looked to mount an impressive comeback.

Humphreys’ second, the result of a break from Ben Te’o, and a further three-pointer from Mills provided further grounds for hope, but Gloucester survived despite some late pressure to join four other teams on nine points.