WORCESTER Warriors withstood a second-half battering from the basement boys to seal a sixth successive win in the Greene King IPA Championship with a 22-10 success at Plymouth Albion.

After opening up a 17-0 lead after 30 minutes, it appeared Dean Ryan’s men might run away with things like they had done against Rotherham and Bedford Blues.

But any thoughts of a comfortable second-half for Warriors soon vanished as their line-out, which had been solid in the opening 30 minutes, became ragged.

Plymouth, who had not won for 17 matches, belied their lowly position on a cold night and Warriors needed to show resolve to restrict the hosts to just one try.

Warriors were always ahead in the contest and they held firm when the hosts, buoyed by their biggest crowd this season at Brickfields, reduced arrears to 17-10 through Lawrence Rayner’s penalty after 61 minutes.

It needed a touch of class to settle Warriors’ nerves and winger Tom Biggs showed his Premiership quality to squeeze over in corner with 11 minutes remaining after a direct run from Ben Howard.

But Plymouth refused to accept defeat and they piled towards Warriors’ line in the dying minutes and Ofa Fainga’anuku was yellow-carded as the visitors’ penalty count rose.

A second-half statistic which highlighted the shift in power shows Plymouth enjoyed a three-point advantage in the 10 minutes when Thomas Jubb was in the sin-bin.

Warriors defended bravely in the second-half, with James Percival, Darren O’Shea and Mike Williams all putting their bodies on the line.

Going into the match, Dean Ryan spoke about the need for players to step up to the mark and skipper Gerrit-Jan van Velze led by example.

The former Northampton Saints forward is beginning to find his feet in the Championship and capped his man-of-the-match performance with two tries.

Andy Symons is another player who looks in top form with strong tackling and breaks beyond the gain-line that are putting his team in the ascendancy.

Symons made a try-saving tackle on Sam Simmonds, who broke through after taking advantage of scrappy Warriors line-out at the end of the first-half.

In fact, that was the first time Albion had ventured into Warriors’ 22 and they remained on the front foot after the restart, Simmonds crashing over after a spell of pressure and Rayner slotting the conversion.

Earlier, van Velze had grabbed Warriors’ first try after catching a line-out and then exploiting a gap in the Albion defence to run through from close range.

Worcester notched their second score, converted by Ignacio Mieres, soon afterwards when Sam Betty got the finishing touch to a catch-and-drive from a line-out.

Warriors grabbed their third try, van Velze popping up on the right wing to go over in the corner after a slick passing move and a final pass from the impressive Symons.

The returning Mieres had a mixed evening, converting Betty’s try, after missing a sitter in front of the posts from an early penalty won at the scrum.

Ultimately, Warriors’ three-try first-half burst proved good enough. There will be easier nights for Warriors and this match goes to show that Ryan’s men cannot take any team lightly, particularly away from Sixways.