Tom Howe's last-minute converted try completed Worcester's 17-13 comeback victory over Leicester which boosted their hopes of avoiding Premiership relegation.

Until Howe's late effort, two missed penalties from Duncan Weir appeared to have been costly.  However, Weir put those failures out of his mind to knock over the touchline conversion, adding to an earlier penalty and the conversion of Francois Hougaard's try.

Jonah Holmes was Leicester's tryscorer with Matt Toomua adding a conversion and a penalty. Tom Hardwick also kicked a penalty.

Leicester had the better of the opening exchanges and took a 14th-minute lead with a simple penalty from Toomua.

However, that was the only score of a forgettable first quarter in which neither side threatened the tryline despite the ideal playing conditions.

From nowhere, Tigers then produced an excellent move which saw Kyle Eastmond's pass send Gareth Owen haring through the home defence before Jordan Olowofela raced over.

It appeared to be a great opening try but subsequent replays showed Eastmond's pass was marginally forward and to Leicester's dismay the try was ruled out.

Warriors drew level with a penalty from Weir before they were stunned to concede the first try.

After sustained pressure, Worcester were only five metres out from the opposition line when Weir's pass was intercepted by Holmes, who held off Francois Venter on a 100-metre run to the line.

Toomua converted before Weir was off-target with two straightforward penalty attempts.

Leicester looked to have made the Scot pay for his profligacy when from a line-out 15 metres out Ben White darted over only for the TMO to rule out the score for an obstruction on Weir, who was prevented by Olowofela from completing the tackle on the Tigers' scrum-half.

Toomua was replaced at half-time by Hardwick and soon afterwards the visitors suffered a further blow when Worcester drew level.

A well-judged pass from Ethan Waller saw Venter's burst put Tigers' defence on the back foot before Hougaard forced his way over for a try, which was confirmed by the TMO.

As the final quarter approached, Leicester's captain Tom Youngs was replaced along with another two forwards with former Warrior Will Spencer one of the replacements.

The game continued to be frenetic with frequent turnovers and poor handling preventing either side building up any real momentum so with 15 minutes remaining, it was difficult to pick a winner.

Hardwick's penalty looked the likely match-winner until a flowing move saw Howe bring delight to the Worcester crowd.