Boss Richard Hill was delighted to secure a nine-point advantage as Warriors claimed a 21-12 victory in the RFU Championship Final first leg in Penzance – but warned his players to expect Cornish Pirates to fight all the way in the second leg next week at Sixways.
Winger Miles Benjamin grabbed the 50th try of his Worcester career and fly half Andy Goode also scored a first half try as Warriors claimed a big win in a tense and dramatic clash in Cornwall.
However, Hill refused to get carried away with the positive outcome and instead insisted his Warriors had plenty of work still to do after a second half that he was less than impressed with.
“I would have been delighted with a one-point win here,” he said. “It is only the second time they have been beaten all season and we have done it twice. A nine-point margin is a little bit more comfortable but it is not over yet.
“We know we have got to raise it again. This team has had to raise it over and over again this season, everyone we play are the underdogs and every team you play come at you like wild dogs.
“These lads have had to deal with the pressure of always being the favourites. We have had 30 games and 30 underdogs coming at us.
“We have dealt with it so far and have one more game to go. Pirates will come at us again and they will fight. We have got to raise it for one more gigantic effort.”
Worcester took a 18-6 half-time lead at the Mennaye Field but in the second half were forced onto the back foot as they adopted a kicking game.
“We didn’t play the second half intelligently,” admitted Hill. “We have got to look at our game management and we kicked too much ball away. They will kill you if you do that.
“It was a tough old game and it really opened up in the second half as Pirates looked to get back into it. We kicked a bit too much ball to them and, as we know, they have got a very talented three quarter line.
“The Cornish Pirates actually started with a few errors and that got us into field position and we took our chances and came away with points. We were clinical in the first half and it was a good start.
“However, the Pirates stepped it up in the second half and caused us a number of problems in defence, they cut our line a number of times. We have got to look at that and we can’t afford to do that next week.
“Cornish Pirates will not give up,” he added. “They battle and battle and both sets of players were suffering cramp towards the end. It’s going to be a tense affair on our own patch and a really big game.”