Bristol vs Worcester match report: Niall Annett's last-gasp try threatens Bristol with more play-off pain

Bristol 28 Worcester 29

Niall Annett's late try gave Worcester the win (Getty Images)

When it comes to play-off rugby, nobody messes up quite like Bristol. Down the years, they have got it monumentally wrong when attempting to avoid relegation from the top flight and been even more tragic in the chase for promotion, so when Worcester scored four tries in the opening half here – the first game in a two-leg, winner-take-all Second Division final – there was something horrible in the West Country air.

It was Gavin Henson, the much-travelled celebrity centre from Wales, who made things smell just a little sweeter with a kicking display from the very top drawer.

But Worcester, stronger at close quarters and much more intense at the breakdown, claimed a fifth try through the substitute hooker Niall Annett with the last attack of the game and will take a one-point lead to Sixways for next Wednesday night’s decider.

The home side started well enough, breaking tackles at will from the get-go, and having seen Henson’s opening penalty overhauled by a try from the visiting flanker Sam Betty – born in Bristol, as irony would have it – they were good value for a blinding five-pointer from the free-running No 8 Mitch Eadie, who side-stepped his way to the line off a sweet pass from Henson following Matthew Morgan’s lacerating break in midfield.

Then, it all crumbled to nothing. Horribly overpowered by a Worcester front row drawn from three of the world’s great scrummaging cultures – when a Georgian, an Argentine and a South African combine with malice aforethought, the earth tends to move– Bristol had two tight-head props dispatched to the sin bin and conceded a penalty try into the bargain.

With the wings Cooper Vuna and Tom Biggs finding their way through a broken defence, the hosts were on their knees, and would have been flat on their backs had Ryan Lamb, the visiting outside-half, not spurned nine points with the boot.

All they could cling to ahead of the interval was a break-out try from the Samoan Test captain David Lemi, courtesy of another open-field stampede from Eadie. They needed a whole lot more to happen for them on the resumption, and they needed it bad.

Henson offered some hope with another beautifully struck penalty to close the gap to two points, but he failed with a right-sided shot midway through the final quarter and then left the field on a stretcher after suffering what was later confirmed to be a broken foot.

No sooner had he disappeared than Nicky Robinson, playing his last home game as Bristol’s midfield playmaker, lofted a high diagonal kick to Worcester’s left corner and the alert Lemi won the scramble for the touchdown.

Robinson missed the conversion, but hit the spot with a right-sided penalty three minutes from time – a success wiped out by Annett’s late intervention.

Scorers: Bristol – Tries Lemi 2 Eadie; Conversions Henson 2; Penalties Henson 2. Worcester – Tries Betty, Penalty try, Vuna, Biggs, Annett; Conversions Lamb 2.

Bristol J Wallace; D Lemi, G Maule, G Henson (J Tovey 69), C Amesbury; M Morgan (N Robinson 55), D Peel (capt, T Kessell 71); K Traynor, C Brooker (M Crumpton 69), G Cortes (A Perenise 69), G Townson (B Glynn 49), M Sorenson, R Jones (Perenise 17-35), M Mama 49), J Lam, M Eadie.

Worcester C Pennell; T Biggs, A Grove, R Mills, C Vuna (B Howard 74); R Lamb, J B Bruzulier; V Rapava Ruskin (R Bower 61), A Creevy (N Annett 76), N Schonert (J Rees 72), J Thomas, J Percival (L Senatore 63), M Williams, S Betty, G J Van Velze (capt).

Referee W Barnes (London).