Worcester 24 Ospreys 14

OSPREYS coach Steve Tandy was happy with his side's efforts after their interest in the LV= Cup ended with defeat in Worcester.

The Ospreys won just one of four matches in the competition, but Tandy remained upbeat.

He said: "We were very competitive, we tried to play in very difficult conditions, but we tried to overplay at times. The sin-binning (of Sam Lewis) was costly as they scored 14 points when we had 14 men.

"It's a great competition, we've had some excellent cross-border fixtures and the young squad have improved considerably since the first game at Exeter to come here and compete with a strong Worcester side."

Neither side will progress to the semi-finals, but for Worcester there was the consolation of recording a fourth straight home win since the start of the year.

With the snow-hit pitch almost totally white at the finish, the referee and players emerged with credit in providing and finishing a hard-fought and entertaining game.

Worcester coach Richard Hill said: "The players couldn't feel their hands out there. At times they couldn't assess whether they had caught the ball or not."

The Warriors fielded the more experienced side and were deserved winners, but the turning point came just before half-time when Ospreys flanker Lewis was sin-binned for offside and in his absence Worcester scored a crucial 14 points.

Hill said: "We've kept up our winning run at home and that was important. It was 7-7 at half-time but those two tries within five minutes of the restart killed off the game as we displayed some excellent drives with James Percival at the forefront."

Two tries from Josh Drauniniu and nine points from the boot of Andy Goode contributed to the Warriors' win.

On paper Worcester appeared to be the stronger side with first-team regulars Marcel Garvey, Percival and Shaun Perry all in their line-up, but it was the Ospreys who took a fourth-minute lead.

Hanno Dirksen ran strongly out of defence to start a flowing 80-metre movement which ended with Matthew Morgan kicking ahead before he collected the loose ball for the try which he also converted.

The Warriors were pressurising the Ospreys at the scrum with the visitors being penalised at almost every engagement. Worcester chose not to kick two penalty chances in favour of more attacking options and were rewarded when birthday boy Jake Abbott drove over from a line-out five metres out for a try which Goode converted.

Ospreys were dealt a further blow when prop Cai Griffiths left the field to be replaced by Duncan Jones, but within minutes the Warriors also suffered a setback when prop Tevita Taumoepeau limped off.

The Warriors continued to dominate the second quarter with the Ospreys giving away a number of penalties. Lewis picked up a yellow card for offside but stubborn defence from the visitors and deteriorating conditions kept the scores level at half-time.

With Lewis still absent, the Warriors took advantage with an excellent try within four minutes of the restart. Goode, Garvey and Tom Arscott were all involved in a 60-metre movement which enabled Drauniniu to outflank the cover defence for a try which Goode converted.

Within two minutes there was another fine movement from the Warriors and Drauniniu was over for his second try, and with another conversion from Goode Worcester appeared to have sealed the game.

However, back came the Ospreys to respond with a try from Dirksen (circled) following a cross-kick from Morgan, with Drauniniu badly out of position as the visitors' wing was allowed to collect and stroll in unopposed.

Goode extended Worcester's lead with a penalty.