Head Coach Richard Hill praised the returning Willie Walker after the full back impressed in the narrow 30-28 victory over Doncaster Knights in the RFU Championship on Saturday.
Walker started his first game of the season at Sixways and scored a second half try while producing a cutting edge from deep.
Hill admitted the performance of the flying back was a rare highlight on a frustrating afternoon as he also saluted the display of ever willing forward Jake Abbott who again showed his all-round game plus scoring a key late score.
“I was pleased with Willie because there was a lot of pressure on him to perform after Tom Arscott has started the season so well,” said Hill.
“I was delighted with the way he responded and that was more like the Willie Walker I would expect to play.
“Jake Abbott did well too – he is very fit and a good player. He is one of the fittest players in the squad and can certainly keep going for 80 minutes.
“Normally, I would have brought James Collins on, but thought Jake was playing so well, I'd keep him on. He made a lot of metres and several line-breaks too.”
Meanwhile, Hill indicated his forward pack are in for a serious working over on the training field after being given a difficult afternoon against the Knights.
He added: “I was surprised the forwards struggled like they did because we had a heavy old pack out there. After the Rotherham experience, where we were a little bit lightweight, we did go for a heavier pack and that should have been a good scrummaging pack.
“We're not spending hours and hours on the scrummaging machine at the moment because we're working on other areas of our 15-man game – but we might have to go on the machine a bit more.
“In the first 20 minutes, the referee gave a lot of penalties against Doncaster. But in the second 20 minutes of the first-half he seemed to turn and give them against us. They were a little stronger than us in the scrum, though, and the supporters can rest assured we will be working on that.”