WORCESTER Warriors boss Alan Solomons was pleased his players kept their nerves in check to claim a “vital” 24-16 victory over Leicester Tigers at Sixways.

First-half Ted Hill and Perry Humphreys tries and 14 points from the boot of Duncan Weir saw Warriors get their Gallagher Premiership campaign off to a winning start.

Solomons and Tigers head coach Geordan Murphy felt their sides both suffered with some early-season jitters in turned out to be an error-strewn contest.

But it was Warriors who came out on top as they secured only their third opening-day win to a top-flight season in their history.

“This was the first game of the season and there was a lot riding on it,” Solomons said.

“I thought the players were a bit nervous before the game and I understand that.

“It was a very tight game.

“But we came out on the right side of it at the end which was really positive.

“It was important to start the campaign with a win and get some points on the board.

“We were unable to do that last year.

“I thought we were unlucky, so it was vital for us to come away with the win.”

After missing his first kick at goal, Weir converted his next five attempts, including a penalty from just in front of the halfway line with five minutes to go.

The long-range kick put Warriors 21-16 in front before Weir dispatched another in the dying seconds.

“I thought that he could do it so the message went onto the field that we wanted to give it a go, provided that he was comfortable to do it,” Solomons said.

“Duncan is a good kicker out of hand and off the floor.

“The game was not done until we got that last penalty and there was no hesitation not to go for that.

“We thought they can’t win the game because we would go eight points clear and they have had it.”

Although pleased to get off the mark, Solomons highlighted the high penalty count was as being an area of concern.

“We gave away penalties at key moments in the game which could have been problematic for us,” Solomons added.

“To me that was a big factor in the game.

“Obviously I have to view it again, but I think the important thing was that we came out on the right side on the scoresheet.”

Murphy thought his team were “well off” where they had been during pre-season and rued the lack of intensity in the match.

“At about 65 minutes I thought we were in it and it was ours to win,” Murphy said.

“But I don’t think we deserved to win the game.

“I thought we were well off where we’ve been throughout pre-season. The intensity to our game just wasn’t there and we looked a bit nervous.

“I don’t think it was a particularly pleasing game to watch for the neutral.

“There were a lot of errors from both teams and it was turgid. They were a little more accurate than us at the right times in the right areas.

“Points in the Premiership will really hurt you. We missed a couple of goal kicks and then you find yourself on the wrong end of the result and wrong end of a bonus point.

“Sometimes you just have one of those games.

“Worcester looked nervous as well, maybe it’s the first game of the Premiership and everyone was a little bit tentative.”