HEAD coach Rory Duncan saluted Worcester Warriors’ game management after grinding out a 23-7 win over Pau in “foul” conditions at Sixways.

Heavy rain and a bitterly cold breeze blighted the European Challenge Cup clash but Duncan Weir’s unerring accuracy from tee guided Worcester to victory and back to the top of Pool Two.

Weir converted first-half tries from Josh Adams and Alafoti Fa’osiliva before landing three penalties to put his side in control.

Pau who beat Warriors 21-6 in France last week dominated possession in the second period but the hosts to dug in to claim their third triumph in the competition.

“Conditions made it difficult but I am very happy with the performance and the end result,” Duncan said.

“In the first half we had a slight breeze behind us and took advantage of it, pinning them down.

“In the second half we were trapped in our half for much of it and you could see by the scoreline that there were not many points put on the board.

“But I thought we controlled things relatively well and really handled the conditions.

“We had similar conditions last week and we didn’t quite manage the game as well as we could have done.

“We spent a lot of time on it this week and had a lot of conversations around how we were going to play this game.

“We knew the weather was going to be foul and I am happy with the way we pitched up.”

Duncan felt scrum-half Jonny Arr, fly-half Weir and centre Ryan Mills all stood up to the task in the atrocious weather.

“It was nice to see Jonny play a full game again and both him and Duncan managed the game really well,” Duncan said.

“Millsy obviously had one or two nudges himself and took a lot of pressure off us in the first half and managed to relieve a bit of pressure in that second half too.”

Ben Mowen opened the scoring with a seventh minute try which Colin Slade converted but Warriors managed to shut Pau out after that.

“With us being pinned in our half in that second half once again we had to make a number of tackles but the guys fronted up,” Duncan said.

“Pau had a number of opportunities close to our try-line but I was really proud of the guys to be able to hold them out on numerous occasions.

“They never crossed the line in the second half.

“With myself being involved with the forwards it was nice to see that we got a bit of momentum with the lineouts and the mauls and we put them on the back foot in the scrums.

“But overall it was just a solid performance from the guys.”

With Ospreys losing 12-3 at Stade Francais on Friday night Warriors’ victory saw them return to the summit.

Worcester are two points ahead of Ospreys but still face a trip to Wales in January to face the Pro14 outfit.

“It would be nice to go all the way,” Duncan added.

“But we have still got to play Ospreys away and Stade at home, so that’s two tough games before we go into the knock-out stages.

“We are very happy to be sitting top of the table and we will obviously keep pushing to hold onto that position.”