WORCESTER Rugby Club skipper Alistair Murdoch admitted his side were just beaten by the better side as they crashed out of Tetley's Bitter Cup with a 42-13 fifth round defeat at Premiership leaders Saracens yesterday.

The Australian was once again central to Worcester's brave bid and bagged their only try of the match in the second-half.

However, he was left in no doubt that the Sixways outfit have to develop further if they are promoted to the Zurich Premiership division next season. He said: "It was tough out there today. We turned over a lot of ball in the last 20 minutes of the first half and the Saracens made us pay.

"Second-half I thought we were a bit better. We scored a penalty and a try and dominated possession in some periods but again we made a few mistakes and they scored from them.

"We are just not used to playing at that pace and they had a lot of ball.

"In the second-half of each half it got very tiring chasing shadows and the tackles started to slip off and they scored some easy tries."

Murdoch was pleased with his try but, for him, it was little consolation.

He said: "It was good to get over the line -- we deserved something out of the game and we got the try and a couple of penalties which was a fair return for out effort.

"However, they were a class above us -- there was no doubt about that."

Worcester, however, were winners in the crowd stakes after consistently out-shouting the Saracens crowd. The 1,000 plus visiting crowd made a fantastic noise all afternoon and Murdoch was quick to pay tribute.

He said: "They were fantastic, absolutely magnificent it was just a shame we couldn't give them a better result."