WORCESTER 18 BATH 36

The foundations of Fortress Sixways shook on Boxing Day as battling Bath become the first side to take away a Guinness Premiership victory from the home of the Warriors with only their third league win this season.

After what has surely been one of the greatest years in Worcester's history, it was ironic that their last playing minutes of 2005 would finish like this.

The result of the match had hung on a knife edge throughout but the hosts were eventually undone by an injury-time collapse and the precise kicking of Olly Barkley.

Sloppy discipline was what cost the home side the victory according to John Brain, Worcester's director of rugby.

He said: "The guys are very disappointed and so they should be because we let ourselves down today. We had a lack of discpline and that proved to be the key factor in the game.

"I don't know what the penalty count was but where we gave them and when we gave them was crucial.

"The crucial part of the game for me was when Duncan Bell was off the field and we ended up losing that spell 6-5, it does annoy me."

After a month's break from league action, a capacity crowd was hoping to see captain Pat Sanderson in a Worcester shirt. However, the England international was out with a back injury but the centre's absence was no excuse according to Brain.

He said: "We did some good things with the ball and I think Pat would have made a difference but his absence was not a key factor, our lack of discpline was."

Shane Drahm, who was named the Guinness player of the month for November, did not have one of his best games but kicked Warriors into the lead on two minutes.

For the next 15 minutes the ball was bogged down in the scrum and at that point Bath had not entered their opponents' 22.

But on 17 minutes fly-half Drahm had a kicked charged down, allowing his opposite number Chris Malone to stroll through unscathed and touch down under the posts. Barkley converted.

The game remained incredibly close as league standings counted for nothing.

But Worcester were handed a slice of luck on 34 minutes. After a lot of huff and puff on the tryline the hosts were awarded a penalty try, a score which Drahm converted.

An injury-time Barkley penalty looked to have secured a scoreline which would have been a fair reflection on the first half. But Drahm sent over a kick of his own to hand Worcester a slender interval lead.

The second half belonged to Barkley as the England international kicked four penalties and two conversions.

Kai Horstmann had jumped through a gap in the visitors' defence to score but Drahm woefully missed the vital conversion for Warriors on 49 minutes.

Worcester fell behind courtesy of the boot of Barkley and never looked likely to breach the defence of Bath.

Malone looked to have killed off the game with his second converted try of the match on 76 minutes. Worse was to come for Worcester when, in injury time, No 8 Gareth Delve intercepted a pass and raced through to slide over for a simple try.

Worcester will kickstart 2006 with a match at Newcastle and Brain is hoping to mark New Year's Day with a victory. He said: "We've got a long trip on New Year's eve and a game on New Year's

Day so we will aim to make it a worthwhile trip and to bounce back."