WORCESTER Warriors maintained their 100 per cent winning record in the British & Irish Cup with a 39-0 thrashing of Moseley at Billesley Common.
The victory, which was their third on the bounce in the competition, was all but sealed by half time as Warriors ran in four tries. Mat Gilbert got the break through on the 17th minute before Tiff Eden, Max Stelling and Perry Humpreys went over in a thrilling end to the opening period.
Moseley, who were trailing 32-0 at the break, dominated the second half, but Warriors dug deep and completed the rout with a try from James Stephenson.
Warriors were boosted by the inclusion of Ryan Mills who was making his debut after undergoing knee surgery in the summer.
And the skilful centre almost scored within the opening minutes as he wriggled his way through and appeared to touch the ball down. But referee Matthew O’Grady ruled it out for a double movement
The next ten minutes were spent in Worcester’s half as Moseley went on the attack. But the visitors were equal to it as Stephenson produced a try-saving tackle to deny Josh Skelcey.
Moseley also turned down several kicks at goal as they searched for the opening try. But this proved to be a decision which would come back to haunt them. Gilbert, who was making his full debut, received Eden’s pass before slipping through to score under the posts. Eden added the extras.
Warriors were all over Mose and they soon extended their lead as Eden fired home two penalties, with the second coming on the half hour mark to give his side a 13-0 advantage.
Moseley fought hard throughout the opening period, but their hopes of getting a result were dashed after a scintillating final ten minutes from Warriors.
The visitors were helped by the sin-binning of Mose fly half Caolan Ryan, but they made sure they made the most of it with some clinical play. Straight after Ryan was given his marching orders, Eden took a tap penalty and skipped through to score. The fly half was unable to convert his own try.
But Eden made no mistake with his next two attempts after Worcester got a quick-fire double before the break. Firstly, Stelling benefited from some neat handling to go over before Warriors broke away again and Humphreys crossed the whitewash to seal the bonus point.
This left Moseley 32-0 behind and with it all to do in the second half to salvage any pride. To the hosts’ credit, they were straight on the front foot and increased their pressure with a series of kicks to the corner.
But they could not find the finishing touch as Ryan got a tap penalty badly wrong while scrum half David Brazier also knocked the ball on when presented with a try-scoring chance .
Warriors, meanwhile, were defending valiantly and even when Richard de Carpentier saw yellow they hardly gave Moseley an inch, with Gilbert working tirelessly at the breakdown.
Worcester then piled more misery on the home side with their fifth try of the afternoon on the 65th minute. After hooker Ben Sowrey made a lung-busting run up field, the ball was shifted out wide to lock Huw Taylor who passed inside for Stephenson to dot down. Eden converted to move Worcester 39-0 in front.
Warriors were left to defend the remaining three minutes with 14 men after Andy Symons saw yellow. But still Mose could not get off the mark as Ed Siggery was stopped short of the line before Danny Hobbs-Awoyemi threw the ball straight out into touch to sum up their afternoon and signal an end to the match.