Northampton were condemned to a seventh Premiership defeat of the season when
Bruce Reihana missed a penalty with the final kick of the match at Franklin's
Gardens.
The result left the Saints contemplating another hard winter struggling
against relegation after Shane Drahm scored all the Worcester points against his
former club.
Fly-half Drahm finished a superb early move, then added a conversion and five
penalties before the Warriors held off some ambitious late counter-attacks.
But they could only stand and watch as Reihana could not split the uprights
with a difficult shot from wide on the right.
The result was hard on the Saints, who were inspired by Carlos Spencer and had
Ben Cohen in top form after being released by England.
Their points came from tries by flanker Darren Fox and centre Rhodri Davies
with Reihana supplying a conversion and three penalties.
But they still struggled to fit their talented backs into an overall structure
and have been sucked into what looks like a prolonged battle against the drop
with Leeds and Newcastle.
In the opening stages it looked like Drahm would have things all his own way
on the first trip back to Franklin's Gardens after his summer move to Sixways.
Thomas Lombard broke and combined with an unlikely support runner in prop Tony
Windo to put Drahm into the corner in the seventh minute and the fly-half
converted and kicked penalties in the 14th, 23rd and 36th minutes.
Worcester might have gone further ahead had he not missed with two other shots
at goal and a forward pass cancelled out what would have been a superb score by
Thinus Delport after Lombard again exploited a disjointed defence.
It took nearly 20 minutes for Northampton to generate any momentum, despite
Spencer's prompting and Cohen's appetite for hard work after his release by
England.
Reihana got them on the board with his penalty and Worcester were forced into
some desperate - and illegal - measures to keep their line intact.
Referee Wayne Barnes finally ran out of patience and brandished the yellow
card three times in 10 minutes.
Worcester flanker Kai Horstmann was first to go for killing the ball on the
half-hour with Fox doubling the punishment by spinning off the side of a rolling
maul to score with Reihana converting.
Northampton centre Seamus Mallon was next in the bin for flying up once too
often in defence, then the visitors were briefly reduced to 13 just before the
break when Drew Hickey went for his involvement in a scuffle with Fox.
Reihana duly added a second penalty to haul Northampton back to 13-16 down at
the interval and after Drahm missed with a straightforward shot at goal they
finally got their noses in front.
Spencer was becoming increasingly influential and made the initial break down
the left with space eventually found on the right for Davies to blast into the
corner.
Reihana nudged them further in front with a penalty on the hour but Drahm
reclaimed the lead with two efforts of his own going into the final 10 minutes.
Northampton roused themselves for one final effort with an attack down the
right and Horstmann was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for trying
to kill the ball - giving Reihana his ill-fated shot at glory.
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