British & Irish Cup: Worcester beat Pontypridd to make semi-finals

Ignacio Mieres scored 14 of Worcester's 24 points against Pontypridd at Sixways

Worcester Warriors reached the last four of the British & Irish Cup with a relatively comfortable 24-10 quarter-final win over Pontypridd at Sixways.

Head coach Carl Hogg praised "a very clinical and sharp first 20 minutes" as early tries from Dean Hammond, Ben Howard and Ignacio Mieres settled it.

Mieres kicked all three conversions and a penalty for a 24-3 half-time lead.

Pontypridd hit back on the hour mark with a converted try from full-back Geraint Walsh.

Simon Humberstone added the conversion to his first-half penalty as the Welsh Premiership title chasers achieved the feat of keeping Worcester at bay for the whole second half.

But, after an 18th straight win, Hogg was pleased to see Worcester join Championship title rivals Bristol, Doncaster and Leinster A in the semi-final draw.

"We'll see what the draw brings up," he told BBC Hereford & Worcester. "But certainly the boys have worked hard to get to this position and they'll be relishing to go on and win a final.

"We got ourselves into a healthy position at half-time.

"We had some exceptional pace out wide and we exploited that early on.

"In the second period we created lots of pressure and field position but we couldn't quite convert. And when they scored the try against the run of play it became an interesting final 20 minutes," he added.