WHEN Worcester Warriors arrived at Clifton Lane to face a wily Rotherham Titans outfit on Saturday, director of rugby Dean Ryan began to question his team selection.
The average age of Warriors’ 22 for the trip to Yorkshire was 24 as it included the likes of Perry Humphreys, 19, Darren O’Shea, 21, and Max Stelling, 20.
But, in the end, he had nothing to worry about as his young side tore Rotherham apart, cliched the bonus point by half time and secured a 47-7 victory.
The visitors’ scintillating opening period, which included two tries from 21-year-old prop Val Rapava Ruskin, stunned the usually vocal home fans while delighting the Warriors boss, who admitted he did not feel confident going into the clash.
“Considering we had ten or 11 experienced players out, I will be honest and I say I felt vulnerable,” Ryan said. “I did not know whether we had enough in the tank experience-wise to come here and manage everything, so to see that 40 minutes, just makes me incredibly proud of them. Also, as a group it just reinforces why we are pushing these youngsters to the front.
“We wanted to see those guys make decisions, understand how to stay on-script and how to win the game and that was all done in the first 40 minutes.”
With just under 1,500 fans watching on at Clifton Lane, which shares with Rotherham Cricket Club, there were concerns from the Warriors camp that their players may struggle rise to the occasion.
But how wrong they were? As soon as Ignacio Mieres slotted home his first penalty of the afternoon, Worcester looked at home.
Georgian loosehead Rapava Ruskin seemed to be the most settled in the surroundings as he scrummaged well throughout while helping himself to a brace of tries. His first came inside the opening ten minutes as he barged over from close range.
Mieres was also kicking superbly as he added the extras before dispatching a penalty to put Warriors 13-0 ahead.
Rotherham, meanwhile, looked completely out of sorts in the first half as they struggled to put any meaningful attacks together while their defence continued to falter. Andy Symons brushed past Daniel White and touched down for another try. Mieres again made no mistake from tee before firing home a further three points from the halfway line.
This summed up the confidence of the visitors who then followed it up with the try of the match. Slick handling between Ben Howard and Max Stelling saw Sam Smith slip through to score, which Mieres converted.
Rapava Ruskin was also involved in the passing move and it was the big front row who sealed the bonus point. Mieres knocked over the resultant kick to give Warriors a 37-0 lead at the interval.
It also left Rotherham with it all to do in the second period, but they started strongly and received a welcome boost. Sam Betty was yellow carded after a collision with James MacKinney, which left both players needing treatment.
Crucially, though, Titans failed to reduce their arrears during the ten minute period as 14-man Warriors defending valiantly.
The same could not be said for Rotherham when they went a man down as Matt Cox went over shortly after Jamie Broadley saw yellow.
Broadley did make amends late on as he crossed the whitewash, which Thomas Barrett converted to get Titans off the mark.
But Warriors made sure they had the final word as a catch and drive saw O’Shea crash over at the death.