APART from a sluggish moment on the stroke of half-time and a stop-start 20-minute period after the interval, Worcester will be happy with their 57-14 rout of Enisei-STM.

Centre Connor Braid struggled with his place kicking but looked composed with ball in hand as Warriors brought down the curtain on their European Challenge Cup campaign.

The Siberian minnows might be the weakest team to have pitched up at Sixways this term but Warriors unlocked their defence with ease in Saturday’s nine-try rout.

Wing Dean Hammond grabbed the headlines with a first-half hat-trick for the club and underlined his development with his maiden man-of-the-match honour.

The work-rate of number eight Matt Cox continues to impress and flanker Sam Betty regained his try-scoring touch and gave a couple of offloads for touchdowns.

It’s always hard to assess players against unknown opponents like Enisei who finished with 14 men after wing Igor Kurashov was dismissed for two cautions.

But the second-row combination of Donncha O’Callaghan and Will Spencer looked compact for the hosts who enjoyed a lot of possession.

O’Callaghan captained the side and barked out clear instructions on the field and the bulk of Spencer caused problems for the visitors in the tackle area.

A lot of eyes were on hooker Joe Taufete’e and the USA international didn’t disappoint with his pin-point line-outs throws and carries into the heart of Enisei’s defence.

On this evidence, Taufete’e could be pushing Jack Singleton and Niall Annett, once he returns after his ankle injury, for a place in Worcester’s Aviva Premiership squad.

Scrum-half Luke Baldwin was energetic and, with Francois Hougaard set to return after injury, could give Warriors some much-needed speed at the breakdown.

An early penalty from Braid got Warriors on the scoreboard before Val Rapava Ruskin barged over following Cox’s interception and then an offload by Betty.

Warriors’ defence held firm before Hammond crossed for his first try and Braid landed a penalty after failing with an earlier shot at the posts.

Ben Howard’s stunning break from deep led to Hammond’s second try and Kurashov was yellow carded for an offence in the lead-up to the score.

Betty ran straight through for a Warriors try in the 33rd minute, which Braid converted, and when Hammond completed his treble, which the centre again improved, the hosts led 35-0.

However, a sloppy restarted allowed the Russians an attacking platform and Mikhail Gachechiladze crashed over on the stroke of half-time with Yuri Kushnarev converting.

Howard deservedly grabbed a try six minutes after the restart but the Russians replied with a well-worked close-range score from Valeri Morozov which Kushnarev converted.

Warriors finished strongly. A neat kick through from Ben Te’o was deliberately flicked out of the path of the onrushing Hammond by the hand of Kurashov who was shown his second yellow card with 11 minutes remaining.

The hosts were awarded a penalty try and replacement Tiff Eden slotted the conversion.

Warriors then exploited gaping holes in Enisei’s tired-looking defence to plunder further tries from replacements Sam Smith and Max Stelling.