Lamb leads Gloucester top

Ryan Lamb scored 18 points to inspire Gloucester to victory over Worcester.

Guinness Premiership, Sixways, Friday October 13th

Gloucester moved to the top of the Guinness Premiership with a hard-fought victory over Worcester at Sixways.

The Cherry-and-Whites trailed 14-7 at one point and had two players - Peter Buxton and James Forrester - sin-binned within two minutes for technical offences.

Yet they dug in to turn the match around, with 20-year-old Ryan Lamb to the fore as he produced a mature performance.

Lamb pulled the strings for the visitors, while fellow youngsters Jack Adams and Anthony Allen each scored tries to edge them ahead of Bristol at the top of the table.

England international Iain Balshaw also crossed the line in his comeback match, with fly-half Lamb finishing with 18 points.

Gloucester's Shane Drahm scored 14 points but a solid display from the home side was not enough for them to avoid a fifth successive defeat.

The Warriors wasted little time in making their mark on the contest as they went ahead after just 50 seconds, with Kai Horstmann sending in Drahm with a superb offload for the opening try.

The Australian converted the touchdown, but Gloucester were level after 10 minutes when Lamb created an opening for Adams before adding the two points.

Gloucester skipper Buxton was sin-binned for pulling down a maul before Forrester dived into a ruck from an offside position to leave the visitors short on numbers.

Worcester punished them with a second try from Dale Rasmussen after good work from Lee Best and Drahm, who once more was successful with the conversion.

A Lamb penalty reduced the deficit at the break as Gloucester went in 14-10 behind.

Lamb slotted another three-pointer early in the second period, before Drahm restored the home side's advantage with a penalty.

However, Lamb dragged Gloucester back to within a point once more with his third penalty before they went ahead for the first time after another infringement from their opponents.

Allen's well-worked scored put some daylight between the teams and although Thomas Lombard gave Worcester hope, Balshaw extinguished it with another try for the visitors in the closing stages.