Worcester Warriors 33

Plymouth Albion 13

The aim before this match was for Worcester to right the perceived wrongs of the last time the sides met.

That was at Brickfields in the second week of the season when Warriors were happy to escape back up the M5 with four points, three tries and a hard-fought 26-19 victory.

That they ended this match having scored more, conceded less and secured a bonus point suggested this was a job well done.

But that doesn't even begin to tell the tale of an absorbing match in which Worcester spent the first hour shooting themselves in the foot, knee-cap, thigh-bone and hip.

Indeed 50 minutes in they trailed 10-9 and had Albion's Mark Lee kicked two very straightforward penalties the Warriors' situation could have been even worse.

And had Jonny Coleman taken Sione Tui'pulotu's 20th minute blindside chip in stride and proceeded down the unguarded left wing, as any Championship winger would have expected to do, it could have been parlous.

But then Plymouth are where they are - which is third bottom - for a reason. And Worcester are where they are for a few million reasons.

While the visitors were without their three Canadian internationals and seemed reluctant to go to their bench, Worcester were able to introduce an All Black, an England Under 20 and one of the most experienced players in Premiership history off theirs.

At which point the 10-9 deficit metamorphosed into a 33-13 advantage as Pat Sanderson, Tom Arscott, Marcel Garvey and finally Oliver Tomaszczyk found their respective ways over the Albion line.

But Richard Hill must discover why his side is mal-functioning so alarmingly for the majority of their games.

One would have thought intensity, commitment and line-speed were an eminently controllable variable - apparently not.

And their head coach has to work out why: "We set ourselves a target of getting the bonus-point but at half-time there were no tries and we were lacklustre, without that spark there," he lamented.

"The coaches will have to look at how on earth we can start better. For some reason we seem to be better away from home.

"When we play here the first 20 minutes belongs to the opposition - it's ludicrous. We have got to look at ourselves as coaches because we don't seem to start playing until we are angry.

"They got angry and then we started to play. We will have to find that anger in the dressing room before we go out.

"Looking ahead towards the play offs, you can't afford to start like that. We gifted 14 points to the Pirates and better teams than Plymouth in that first half would have scored a couple of tries.

"We have got to find the key to start well and getting them out there like raging bulls."

WORCESTER: Walker; Garvey, Crockett, Short (Higgitt 61), Arscott; Carlisle, Williams (Frost 51); Black, Shervington (Fortey 50), Douglas (Tomaszczyk 50), Bowley (Rawlinson 50), Gillies, Horstmann, Sanderson, Balding (Kvesic 61). Replacement: Ripol

PLYMOUTH: Lee (Davies 69); McLoughlin, Mercer, Tui'pulotu, Coleman (Johns 69); Hallett, Kessell; Porter, Evans (Mortimore 77), Hopkins (Morton 69), Collier, Skelding, Copeland (O'Meara 64), Watts-Jones, Hocking (Matavesi 72). Replacement: Cushion

Referee: Darren Gamage (RFU)