DIRECTOR of rugby Alan Solomons sang the praises of the young Warriors who helped blow open European Challenge Cup Pool One.

Worcester survived a shaky start to waltz to a 66-10 success over Enisei-STM at Sixways, a 10-try haul inspired by the creativity of Jamie Shillcock and an 11-minute hat-trick by Ollie Lawrence late in the first half.

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Allied to Castres thumping Dragons 42-14, it means a bonus-point win against the French side on Friday (8pm) would give Warriors a fighting chance of a last-eight berth, probably as one of the three best pool runners-up.

Dragons, currently tied with Worcester on 15 points in the standings, host Enisei at the same time and would hold the edge if the rivals end up level having gained a losing bonus point at Sixways.

In the event of a tie, the team with the highest number of points from the fixtures against one another heads through but victory without conceding a bonus would see Warriors get the better of Castres in the final reckoning.

“We were not in control of things, it wasn’t in our hands but the win that Castres had put us into a better position,” said Solomons.

“We have the five points we needed and it was a good day for us because Castres put a few points on the Dragons.

“It is important to perform well again next week, obviously the opposition is going to be a lot stronger and we still have wait to see what team Castres send to us.”

On the performance, Solomons said: “Firstly, everyone got good game time which was fantastic and secondly I thought the young lads did really well which was great to see.

“The game always takes a while to get into a rhythm and they did very well for the try, it was a very good cross kick but eventually the pressure told and the points came.

“There were a few balls that went astray during the course of the game but there was a bit of a swirl to the wind.

“There can always be improvement in certain areas but I think the first thing to do is give the lads credit for what they did.

“We scored some cracking tries and played some really good rugby. Full marks to them.

“We said at the beginning of the week, you have to build your innings. You can’t go slogging from the off and that point was made because Enisei were up 10-7.

“You have to build into the game and once we did that, the score board started ticking over and it became much easier to play in a particular way. To some extent we did build that innings.

“You always have to see games in context but you can only play what is against you on the day.

“The first thing is to say well done to the lads, because they played well, but you have to see it in perspective.

“Enisei don’t have the benefit of playing in a strong, competitive league. They certainly gave it everything they had, they just don’t have that benefit.

“They kept trying right until the very end but competition drives the development of players, coaches, referees and administrators. The higher the level, the better it is."