Bath 47-22 Worcester: All over by half-time for Warriors reserves

WORCESTER'S miserable record at the Rec continued as they took their losing run on the ground to 17 matches.

After last week's committed performance at London Irish, Worcester chose to change nine of their starting line-up and the reserves weren't up to the task as they trailed 40-0 at the break before the cavalry arrived to stem the tide.

Worcester head coach Jonathan Thomas said: “Our first half performance was not acceptable as I was really disappointed that we let ourselves down.

“We picked the players for a reason but you can't afford to feel yourselves into a Premiership match and we had to tell them a few home truths at the interval.

“We challenged the boys at half-time to try and secure a bonus point so I'm really proud of them that they were able to do that.”

Worcester comfortably won the second half as by then they had the benefit of experienced hands Francois Hougaard, Niall Annett and Ethan Waller in their line-up but they were aided by disruption to Bath, who lost three of their backs through injury and ended up with scrum-half Ben Spencer on the wing.

Spencer was a leading light for the hosts against abject first-half opponents. He spread the ball wide where wings, Will Muir and Ruaridh McConnochie regularly threatened as Bath had the freedom of the park with hooker Tom Dunn and lock Josh McNally leading a totally dominant pack.

It took just 80 seconds for Bath to open the scoring. An early penalty took them into the opposition 22 from where Dunn burst away before a long pass from Rhys Priestland sent Muir over.

Priestland missed the touchline conversion, his first miss since November 21, and it brought to an end his Premiership record run of 36 successful kicks in succession.

However the Welsh flyhalf was soon back on target, converting a close range try from Dunn as Worcester continued their miserable start.

Warriors' woes were unrelenting as they soon conceded a third try. Fin Smith's clearance was charged down by Ben Spencer and, from the resulting lineout, Zach Mercer finished off the drive.

Bath picked up their bonus point when they moved the ball from inside their own half to give Muir the chance to finish in style for his second.

A fifth try soon followed when McConnochie brushed aside some weak tackling to power down the right flank before providing Spencer with the scoring pass.

Bath's scoring spree took a temporary breather but they extended their lead to 40-0 when Max Clark took advantage of a favourable bounce to score.

Worcester picked up their first try when Joe Batley charged down Priestland's kick to pick up and score and they soon added to the score by producing their best move of the match with Chris Ashton sending Perry Humphreys over.

Back came Bath to score their seventh try with Dunn forcing his way over for his second but Warriors were a different side in the second half and were rewarded with late tries from Humphreys and Ethan Waller to pick up a bonus point.

WORCESTER: David 3 (Venter 28, 6), Ashton 5, O Morris 4, Butler 4, Humphreys 5, Smith 3, Simpson 4 (Hougaard 54, 6), Thomas 4 (Waller 47, 6), Miller 4 (Annett 47, 6), J Morris 4 (Van Dyk 57, 6), Kitchener 5 (Clegg 62, 6), Batley 6, Hill (c) 6, Dodd 5, Kvesic 6 (Du Preez 53, 6)

Not used: Searle