Currie 16 - 32 Worcester: Currie show admirable effort but still winless

Currie are still looking for their first ever British & Irish Cup victory, but they gave as good as they got before being defeated by English Championship leaders Worcester last night.

The Warriors started stronger before a great tackle by Currie back-row Mike Entwhistle knocked his opponent back a few metres to warm the home crowd. And they earned a kickable penalty after nine minutes, Hayden Abercrombie giving the hosts the lead. The visitors went ahead 5-3 in the 15th minute when a nice team move eventually saw back-row James Freeman escape the clutches of Tom Brown's tackle to dive over. Currie then suffered a double blow when Entwhistle and centre Andy MacMahon were forced off with blood injuries.

Worcester - fielding former Merchiston Castle prop Oliver Tomaszczyk - stretched their lead on 26 minutes when, after back-row James Collins had been pulled down short of the line, the ball was shipped left for Willie Walker to go over with stand-off Joe Carlisle converting.

When Freeman was sin-binned in the 31st minute it gave Currie a boost before the break. They reduced the deficit to 12-6 when Abercrombie slotted a penalty.

Carlisle's penalty made it 15-6 to the visitors two minutes into the second half and, when Mike Penn scored their third try, it was suddenly 22-6. Currie, as always, refused to give up and Abercrombie's penalty reduced the deficit to 13 points with half an hour to go. And with 15 minutes left it was 25-16, a Carlisle penalty being countered by a 90 metre run in for a converted Currie try by Matthew Scott after the stand-off intercepted Ollie Frost's pass.

Worcester sealed things with a converted try with the last play by sub James Whybrow.

Scorers: Currie: Try: Scott. Pens: Abercrombie 3. Worcester: Tries: Freeman, Walker, Penn, Whybrow. Pens: Carlisle 2. Cons: Carlisle 3.

Currie: J Smith; T Brown, H Abercrombie, A MacMahon, D Fife; M Scott, R Snedden; J Cox , S Simonsen, A Hamilton, R Wilson, A Adam, S Burton, R Weston, M Entwhistle. Subs used: A Walker, R Merrilees, G Temple, A Best, I Downie, A Whittingham, A Binikos.

Worcester: W Walker; M Penn, R Higgitt, G King, O Ripol; J Carlisle, O Frost; M Mullan, E Shervington, O Tomaszczyk, N Dacres, W Bowley, J Freeman, A Balding, J Collins. Subs used: C Black, R Wood, L Silver, J Whybrow.

Referee: J Matthew.