Conor Kilroy's last minute penalty was the deciding score in what was a pretty competitive encounter as pre-season friendlies go. There was much for Kidney to feel good about, with a number of promising performances from such as Brian O'Riordan, Shane Jennings, Gavin Hickie and Dave Hewitt, returning to Castle Avenue. There was also a new face in Eoin Burke at scrumhalf, a brother of Brendan.
Worcester opened the scoring with a penalty from Tommy Hayes, the Cook Islands outhalf, before Shane Jennings benefited from a controlled maul to score.
With the Worcester backline pushing up hard, Leinster struggled to make things happen initially in the backline. However, O'Riordan made a searing break that, with Jennings having been sin-binned, Leinster couldn't convert into a try.
Worcester scored through Matt Powell, following good work from winger Ben Gollings. A Hewitt penalty on the stroke of halftime left the scores tied at 8-8.
A Kidney pep-talk and some alignment changes produced Leinster's best period after half-time and Hewitt did very well to score on the outside of his man. However, Worcester applied considerable pressure thereafter, with Darren O'Leary availing of a gap to score.
The win was secured, though, when the referee pinged Worcester for handling in a ruck on 78 minutes and Kilroy didn't need asking twice from the 22m line.
