Felipe Contepomi wiped away the disappointment of an early penalty miss to go on and kick Stade Francais to an opening Amlin Challenge Cup victory.

The Argentine legend punished a string of home offences with six successive penalties to edge the French side past the Warriors early 14 point lead and then made the break that led to a crucial try from England wing Paul Sackey.

It took all the class and experience of Stade’s big name players to haul them back into a game that at one stage threatened to run away from them after Worcester’s whirlwind start.

Two tries in a white hot opening 12 minutes from the home side saw them steal a march on their illustrious visitors to establish a lead they weren’t to lose.

It was full back Chris Pennell who got the Sixways crowd roaring with approval as he took a great short pass from Irish back row man Neil Best on the edge of the Stade 22 before racing clear for the opening try.

Joe Carlisle added the conversion and then hit the upright from the half-way line. If that was a set-back, moments later the Warriors were in dream land.

Stade worked their way menacingly into the home 22 and looked to have an overlap. Then Pennell popped up to intercept, kick out of his 22 and set speedster Marcel Garvey on a breakneck race against Djibril Camara up the left touchline.

He not only outpaced his opposite number, but showed great footballing skills to kick and control the ball before claiming a remarkable try. Carlisle’s cool conversion simply made things better and after a mere dozen minutes the Warriors were 14 points to the good.

But if last season’s Amlin Challenge Cup runners-up were rattled they didn’t show it. Sergio Parisse and his pack gradually got to grips with the game and slowly, but surely turned the screw. As Worcester’s possession dried up, so their chances of improving their score vanished.

Two Contepomi penalties in the last 10 minutes of the first half cut the gap to 14-6 and he kicked three more in the opening 17 minutes of the second period. His fifth success finally put Stade ahead at 15-14 and the writing was on the wall from thereon in for the gallant home side.

And no sooner had they hit the front than Parisse’s men went for the jugular and conjured up a try for Sackey that gave them a cushion to take into the closing stages. The Warriors huffed and occasionally puffed, but one missed penalty from Carlisle apart they never looked like scoring again.

But there was one final action from Dr Contepomi to put his patient fully to sleep as he landed a sixth penalty to make victory safe and give Stade the perfect start to their Pool 1 campaign.