Warriors qualified for Saturday’s Cup quarter-finals of the Premiership Rugby 7s at Franklin’s Gardens Northampton after they beat Sale Sharks 22-21 in their opener but were then beaten 28-12 by defending champions Saracens in the Pool A decider.
As Saracens also defeated Sale in their first match, Warriors knew that they had already secured a place in the Cup’s knockout stages before they played their second match.
Warriors finished the pool stage as the seventh-ranked side and will now face Exeter Chiefs – ranked second – in the Cup quarter-finals on Saturday at 3.38pm.
Tries from wing Joe Medcraft – guesting from Westcombe Park – and captain Alex Hearle meant Warriors led 12-7 two minutes into the second half but Saracens scored three tries in the last three minutes of the match to secure top spot.
Rotimi Segun crossed twice in a minute to dash Warriors’ victory hopes and Tom Whiteley then nipped in from the final play of the match to deny Warriors a losing bonus point.
In their opening match Stourbridge wing Reece Beddows, one of five guest players in Warriors’ squad, scored two tries against Sale.
But it was a long range effort from Luke Scully two minutes from time that clinched the bonus points and settled a tight match.
Beddows went over for his first try after three minutes and soon followed up with his second after he outpaced Sale’s defence.
James Williams, who played for Cavaliers in last season’s Premiership Rugby Shield, reduced the deficit when he went over from halfway for Sale’s opening try with Tom Curtis adding the conversion.
That try was immediately cancelled out by one from back-row forward Caleb Montgomery, on his first appearance for Warriors following his summer move from Ulster.
Scully landed the conversion – all have to be taken with drop kicks in sevens – which was to prove a crucial kick for Warriors.
Sale scored again almost from the kick-off at the start of the second half when a sustained attack created space for Rouban Birch and Curtis’s conversion reduced the gap to just three points.
But Sale were reduced to six men when Raffi Quirke was sin-binned for a high tackle on Scully and Warriors capitalised with Scully ghosting through from halfway in the last minute.
There was still time for Teddy Leatherbarrow to score Sale’s third try which Curtis also converted but it came too late to deny Warriors.