Head of Skill Development and Academy Manager Andrew Stanley praised his young guns as Worcester Warriors crunched Newport Rugby 58-10 to open the British & Irish Cup bid in emphatic fashion.
New-look Warriors – who included 16 Academy products in the match day 22 and only had an average age of 23 in the squad – produced a scintillating show at Sixways to run in seven tries and take the Welsh side apart.
Stanley, who has handed control of team affairs with Academy Assistant Manager Gary Meechan by Head Coach Richard Hill for the game, was delighted with the manner of the cup performance.
“Before the game we asked the guys to try and keep them momentum going from our league campaign – a result like that obviously did that,” said Stanley. “We're pleased that we were able to translate what we did in training during the week.
“There were a lot of Academy players in our team and Newport had some hardened professionals in their team. Robert Sowden-Taylor is a very good player at seven and I think Matt Kvesic did very well against him. For an 18-year-old, that is part of his learning curve, but I thought he stood up well against him.
“Sam Miller didn't look out of place and put in a good performance – it was also great to see the likes of James Clutterbuck, James Whybrow and Will Radburn coming off the bench to make their debuts. It is a great arena here and an opportunity for them to show the fans and the coaches what they can do.
“I am pleased for the boys and everyone involved with the Academy that so many of the lads played. A lot of hard work goes on in the Academy with me, Gary Meechan, Lee Cleaver in the conditioning department as well as Karl Denvir our new physio. The support from the senior staff is excellent now and it was fantastic to have 16 Academy boys in the team against Newport.
“Richard (Hill) has been very good in rotating the squad and we'll see where we go with that, but it was just nice to be able to get some of the younger boys involved in front of a decent crowd and against a decent team. It will help them to find their feet and will benefit them for the future.”
Stanley also dismissed that the sending off of Newport back row Andrew Coombs was crucial with Warriors already firmly in control before the Number 8 received his marching orders for a kick.
“We were already a number of tries up already before the Newport number eight got the red card, which was a disappointing thing to see, but quite often in games a red card can galvanise teams and they came together a little bit after that.
“It was a point in the game which will be disappointing from their aspect, but we were already well ahead by that stage and were generating quite a lot of force.
“Newport are a side that play together in a pretty competitive competition week in, week out, so we thought they would come and be very competitive. The boys were up for it in that respect.
“We were delighted to rack up the score we did – it all came together and we put a fair few tries on the board – our attacking play was rewarded.
“They are no mugs and they had six guys on permit from the Dragons set-up, so they had some good, experienced hardened pros in their team.”