WORCESTER Warriors were left wondering what might have been after clinical Bristol Bears put Worcester to the sword in closing 15-minute period to seal 30-13 win at Ashton Gate. 

The under-strength home side scored 19 unanswered second-half points to come back from 11-13 down to secure a bonus-point win, as Warriors left the South-West pointless. 

The game swung on a decision made with 65 minutes on the clock as referee Ian Tempest disallowed Tom Howe's runaway score after deciding Oli Morris knocked on in a tackle with Bristol's Siale Piutau in the build-up. 

The decision was made by the TMO Craig Maxwell-Keys but it was not the most conclusive of calls and Warriors were left feeling hard done by. 

Their frustrations were compounded two minutes later when Bristol went up the other end to score the decisive try through captain Siale Piutau after Andrew Kitchener was sent to the bin moments before.

Two scores in the closing quarter of an hour from Piutau and a penalty try confirmed the victory and handed Worcester their first defeat of the season. 

The home side had started the better of the two and Welsh starlet Ioan Lloyd was orchestrating things nicely from full-back and his two penalties put the Bears 6-0 up early on. 

Billy Searle responded from the tee shortly afterwards before Lloyd showed his class with ball in hand as he skipped past Francois Venter and a number of Worcester defenders to set-up Piers O'Conor for the opening try of the day. 

Searle then proved what he could do with his feet as he turned a nothing attack into a decisive one and ran through the middle of the Bristol defence before throwing a flat ball out wide to Tom Howe who dotted down. 

Searle had a chance to make the scores level at the break with a simple penalty but it drifted wide and it remained 11-8 at the half.

Worcester came out of the sheds firing and were ahead after five minutes when Marco Mama finished off a counter attack move with a big dive over the line against his old club. 

It was Warriors' first lead of the game but it was not to be enjoyed for long as from the re-start Nick David knocked on and minutes later, Bryan Byrne touched down after a successful rolling maul. 

Then came the big moment of the match on the 65th minute. 

Oli Morris flew up in the defensive line on half-way and made a huge tackle on Bears' skipper Piutau. The ball went loose and Howe pounced and ran it in from 40 metres. 

The referee went to the TMO and they adjudged the ball was knocked on by Morris in the contact and it was ruled out. 

From the scrum, Bears earned a penalty and kicked into the corner where they again went to the driving maul. 

Kitchener pulled it down illegally according to Tempest and he was sin-binned. 

Bristol kicked into the corner again and Piutau joined the maul to push it over and score the try to put Bristol 23-13 up with just over 10 minutes to play. 

By this point Worcester looked finished and a penalty try with three minutes on the clock confirmed the maximum five-point win for the hosts. 

Warriors will need to pick themselves up before the home game with bath, next weekend.