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Worcester needed a late penalty try to earn a five-point advantage over London Scottish going into the home leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.

Sam Smith's try and a brace from Cooper Vuna put Warriors 17-3 ahead before Jamie Stevenson reduced the deficit.

Mark Bright then crossed twice for Scottish to put the hosts 22-17 ahead.

But, after Ryan Lamb's successful penalty kick, Warriors were awarded a penalty try at the death after the scrum had to be reset five times.

Worcester were hampered by the 14th-minute loss of scrum-half Charlie Mulchrone with an ankle injury, a situation exacerbated when his replacement Jonny Arr was yellow-carded for a tip tackle before the break.

The Warriors, already without the suspended Jonathan Thomas, were twice more reduced to 14 men in the second half when forwards Mike Williams and James Percival were also shown yellow cards.

The second leg is at Sixways this Friday night (8 May, 19:45 BST)

In the other semi-final, Bristol too made hard work of beating Rotherham, also needing the help of a penalty try to earn a 32-20 first-leg cushion.

London Scottish: Lydon; Williams, Moffat, Gidlow, Mantella; Newton, Stevenson; Hallam, Kwasnicki, Prescott, Phillips, Thomas-Brown, Gillanders, Best, Bright.

Replacements: Lilley, Stephenson, Rae, Chisholm, Walker, Heeks, Millar.

Sin bin: Doneghan, Rae

Worcester Warriors: Howard; Smith, Grove, Mills, Vuna; Lamb, Mulchrone; Bower, Annett, Schonert, Williams, O'Shea, Senatore, Betty, van Velze.

Replacements: Creevy, Fainga'anuku, Rees, Percival, Lewis, Arr, Hammond.

Sin bin: Williams, Percival, Arr

Attendance: 2,500