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Leicester continued their climb up the table as victory over Worcester at Sixways stretched their unbeaten Premiership run to five matches.

First-half tries from Matt Smith and Toby Flood, who kicked 12 points, earned a 20-3 half-time lead.

Joe Carlisle's penalty and his conversion of Marcel Garvey's try reduced the gap to just seven at 20-13.

But lock Louis Deacon's try secured victory before Horacio Agulla crossed late on to earn maximum points.

The Tigers, unbeaten since getting back their 12 missing players following the end of the World Cup, are now up to fifth, level on points with their next opponents, Sale Sharks.

But their fourth win in five league games, engineered by a 17-0 lead inside the first 22 minutes, came at a cost, with hamstring injuries for two of their England internationals, stand-in skipper Deacon and Manu Tuilagi, both of whom limped off late on.

Worcester were twice reduced to 14 men after number eight Chris Jones and then substitute prop Oliver Tomaszczyk were sin-binned.

They briefly threatened a revival when wing Garvey scored early in the second half. But they were made to pay for a dreadful start when Flood twice cut them open defensively, creating Leicester's opening try for Smith and then scoring himself.

Richard Hill's Warriors remain six points clear of bottom club Newcastle ahead of Sunday's trip to High Wycombe to meet Wasps.

POST-MATCH VIEWS

Worcester Warriors coach Richard Hill:

"We showed a lack of urgency at the start. We were slow to react and lacked a period of continuity. We did not stick to our defensive strategy during the first 20 minutes, and those first 20 minutes killed us.

"We had identified that Leicester don't play with too much width, so we knew we had to mark Flood and the areas around him, but what did we do? We let him right through the middle. He had to be bottled up, but we didn't do that.

"Of all the games this season, that was one of our most disappointing. I am not happy with it. We under-performed, it is not good enough and we need a reaction."

Leicester Tigers coach Richard Cockerill:

"It is not an easy place to come and play and get a result, so to win and get a bonus point is fantastic. A big start was important, and we got that.

"The World Cup period was very hard for us. We had a lot of guys missing, and we got caught out. We had to bite our lip and take some medicine. That happens sometimes. But we have kept the faith in how we want to play and we've kept our bottle, and we have started to turn it around.

"With 12 Test players missing during the World Cup, plus eight or nine injuries, you are going to have problems, and we got beaten. People have to judge us when we have a full complement of players.

"Louis Deacon and Manu Tuilagi have both got hamstring strains of various degrees. We are not sure to what extent at this stage. During the course of the 24 to 48 hours, we will know."

TEAMS

Worcester: Pennell; Garvey, Grove, Rasmussen, Benjamin; Carlisle, Perry; Mullan, Shervington, Taumoepeau; Percival, Gillies; Betty, Abbott, Jones.

Replacements: Arr for Perry (51), Kvesic for Abbott (57), Lutui for Shervington (57), Fatiaki for Grove (62), Goode for Carlisle (62), Tomaszczyk for Taumoepeau (62), Douglas for Betty (79).

Not Used: Gulliver.

Sin Bin: Jones (40), Tomaszczyk (74).

Leicester: Hamilton; Agulla, M Tuilagi, Twelvetrees, Smith; Flood, Youngs; Stankovich, Chuter, Cole; Deacon, Slater; Croft, Woods, Waldrom.

Replacements: Castrogiovanni for Stankovich (51), Salvi for Woods (57), Morris for M Tuilagi (72), Mafi for Deacon (76), Young for Youngs (78).

Not Used: Hawkins, White, Staunton.

Referee: John Paul Doyle (RFU).

Attendance: 12,024.