Guinness Premiership: Worcester Warriors 17 Leicester Tigers 19

Only the coming days will tell just how costly this match turns out to be and only the coming months will determine just how costly its loss may prove.

Injuries to half of their Chrises, Latham and Horsman, may not be as debilitating to the collective or individuals as first feared. The hope is the former’s neck and the latter’s dead leg will keep them out for no longer than the odd week.

Make no mistake, Worcester will probably not be relegated and if they are it won’t be because they failed to beat Leicester at home. But for the first time this season they allowed crucial Premiership points to escape them because of the lack of a high-percentage, high-quality goal-kicker.

It is a concern many voiced before the campaign, many who may now fairly wonder if their misgiving is well-placed. Long after Latham and Horsman are restored to the side Worcester may still require an Andy Goode-type of metronomic boot that could prove so decisive.

Mike Ruddock’s men missed four goals and in doing so spurned a dozen points that would have made their afternoon considerably more comfortable. If forwards win matches and backs decide by how much, kickers have the power to claim games their forwards have been unable to or ones in which their backs are unsure of the margin.

Enter the other two Chrises, Fortey and Pennell. Both will look back ruefully on their performances knowing they had the chance to secure a result for their team.

Pennell, who was otherwise outstanding, missed an eminently makeable attempt nine minutes into the second period and while it didn’t seem especially expensive at the time, in the final audit it would have given Worcester the win.

Then there was Fortey, on as a second-half substitute for Aleki Lutui, who bit so greedily on a dummy thrown by Leicester scrum half Julien Dupuy, that the Frenchman was given the room to wriggle over for the winning try. The former Biarritz half back then picked himself up and broke the 17-17 tie with the conversion. Kickers you see. Can’t live without them.

There was still time for another replacement, Matthew Jones, to skew his attempt, from a similar position to Pennell’s, across the face of the sticks. A few minutes remained but unlike eight days ago there was to be no last-second reprieve.

Ruddock insists he has the right people with the right sort of work ethic at the club to ensure Worcester do not suffer in this area for too long. In the meantime supporters must hope Loki Crichton’s radar doesn’t go too awry or that Jones can become the 80 per-center every top flight side requires.

It would be entirely wrong, however, to suggest it was a match without anything positive. Pennell continues to grow into the role of a Premiership operator and now looks truly accomplished if a tad out of place on the wing.

Netani Talei, scorer of the his team’s second try, was as devastating without the ball as he was with it and his back row colleagues, Tom Wood and James Collins continue to ambush more illustrious opponents.

And then there is the wonderful Matt Mullan. The young prop has found himself ranged against Phil Vickery and Julian White in the last two games and on each occasion has emerged with an honourable draw in the scrum and near omnipotence in the loose.

Midway through the first half the 21-year-old shrugged aside the malevolent attentions of Ben Kay as if the World Cup winner was an irritating child to rumble over for the second league try of his career

And in the first half in particularly Worcester’s rush defence was yet again so committed and so disruptive it is could be the best in the division. With Dale Rasmussen and Sam Tuitupou smashing runners in midfield and Wood, Collins and especially Talei doing likewise around the fringes, Worcester force a steady stream of errors from opponents.

Just as Wasps had done the week before, Leicester coughed up like a tramp with laryngitis.

What they must do is convert this supply line into dominance on the scoreboard – no prizes for guessing how that’s done. Goals.

While Tigers’ Toby Flood also missed a couple of shots at the posts, one always felt that when a big one presented itself, the England international would make it.

Indeed he was his team’s only source of points until the 68th minute when Dupuy slipped over.

He also produced a try-saving tackle on Latham when the Australian nicked Ben Herring’s off-load on the Worcester line and out-paced the first wave of corner-flaggers to reach the Leicester 22.

That was when Flood appeared and Latham clearly felt he would not be able to out-pace his man and so he checked. By the time he had done so he was enveloped though Tigers were forced into conceding a penalty. Crichton kicked it but three should have been seven and seven minutes later Dupuy made Worcester pay for their profligacy.

Worcester: Latham (Jones M 68); Pennell, Rasmussen, Tuitupou, Benjamin; Crichton (Fellows 79), Powell; Mullan, Lutui ( Fortey 66), Horsman (Taumoepeau 37), Rawlinson (Gillies 71), Bowley, Wood, Collins (Horstmann 67), Talei. Replacement: Jones B.
Leicester: Murphy G; Varndell, Smith, Mauger, Murphy J (Erinle 79); Flood, Dupuy (Youngs B 71); Ayerza, Kayser (Chuter 59), White (Cole 66), Corry, Kay (Wentzel 53), Croft, Herring (Woods 71), Crane. Replacement: Youngs T

Referee: Andrew Small (RFU).