DIRECTOR of rugby Dean Ryan was delighted after Worcester Warriors blew away play-off rivals Nottingham 58-3 in a one-sided clash at Lady Bay.

“We are really pleased — we’ve had some good 20 or 30-minute spells but we’ve never really been able to kick on,” said Ryan.

“We challenged ourselves to make sure our intensity stayed across the contest so our defensive record was crucial too.

“We wanted to keep pushing to ensure we were clinical about our approach and I thought some of the tries in the second-half were an illustration of pressure.

“In terms of an 80-minute performance that’s starting to come with the intensity that we are after.”

Worcester’s pace and power was too much for fourth-placed Nottingham and Warriors opened up an impressive 29-3 lead at half-time.

“There have been glimpses of really good things but it’s getting those good things and a balance of staying in contests,” said Ryan.

“Sometimes you have to sit on your own goal-line and make sure they don’t score and we defended two drives on five metres where Nottingham didn’t’ get anything.

“I am really pleased for the lads because they have played some really good stuff after not having been able to nail down an overall performance.

“As we moved into the second-half of the match, we talked about being more mature and understanding what an 80-minute performance looked like.”

It was only Nottingham’s second league game at Lady Bay, a venue with temporary stands that had previously been the club’s training ground.

The ground was a far cry from Warriors’ impressive Sixways Stadium.

Ryan said: “I couldn’t be more proud of the lads turning up and conducting themselves in the right way.

“These types of venues can catch you out mentally.

“Moseley was a tough battle for us on a really cold day and to come to this place after experiencing Notts County in the British and Irish Cup game was testing.

“We talked a lot about it about not letting ourselves down and conducting ourselves in the right way and we had to arrive in the right frame of mind.

“We got all that right and it was a real credit to the boys for a fine display.”