Worcester Warriors win on Aviva Premiership return

A last-minute drop goal from Tom Heathcote has given Worcester Warriors a narrow 13-12 win over Northampton Saints in their first match since winning promotion back to the Aviva Premiership.

© Getty Images

The visitors made a bright start to the match, with Stephen Myler adding two penalties following some early errors from the newly-promoted Warriors.

Worcester soon started to dominate the possession though, setting up captain GJ van Velze to ground the ball following a maul, giving him a try against his old club.

The home side were penalised following a scrum early in the second half, allowing Myler to go for the posts again, closing the gap to one point, but points-scoring opportunities remained scarce for both sides, with neither adding to the score again until the last two minutes.

It looked like Northampton were going to snatch a last-gasp win when Myler kicked his fourth penalty of the match, putting the visitors in front for the first time in the second half.

However, Heathcote got a sighting at the posts from 25 metres out, kicking it through with the final action of the meeting to hand the hosts the narrowest of victories.