A STAR-STUDDED Worcester Warriors side kicked off their Premiership Cup campaign with a 35-3 win over a youthful Sale Sharks outfit at Sixways.

Josh Adams, Francois Hougaard and Francois Venter went over in the first-half before close-range scores from Pierce Phillips and Matti Williams ensured a fourth successive victory for Warriors.

Sports reporter Geoff Berkeley picked out six talking points from Friday night’s triumph.

Warriors’ stars get a much-needed run-out.

While the majority of teams in the competition selected predominantly young players – including Sale – Warriors raised a few eyebrows when they announced their stellar line-up.

But there was nothing to stop Worcester from picking their key men and after two weeks without a competitive match it was clear the likes of Hougaard, Duncan Weir and Bryce Heem needed game-time.

Although the score-line suggests an emphatic victory Warriors were not firing on all cylinders as they made a number of mistakes. And had those errors come against a more experienced side then it may have been a different story.

Fly-half makes case for full-back slot.

With Chris Pennell not risked Jamie Shillcock, who usually turns out in his favoured fly-half position and has recently returned from injury, made an impressive outing at full-back.

The 21-year-old was a real threat in attack as he combined well with Adams in the first half.

His sudden change in direction tricked the Sale defence as he burst through a gap before offloading to Adams who finished with ease for the opening try.

Remember the name – Farai Mudariki.

The Zimbabwe prop was only on the field for 33 minutes but made a big impact on his debut.

Signed from French club Stado Tarbes ahead of the season after a glowing reference from ex-Warrior James Percival Mudariki added bulk to Worcester’s front row and carried well.

But the 23-year-old’s work was over seven minutes before the break when he was unable to shake off a blow to his neck in the lead up to Hougaard’s try.

Francois is finding his feet.

After making the move from South African side Cheetahs this summer Francois Venter took time to settle in Warriors’ midfield.

But the Springbok has more than proved his worth in his past two showings.

After starring in Worcester’s thrashing of Bristol Bears Venter produced another destructive display at Sixways.

Switching to inside centre the 27-year-old crossed the whitewash after linking up with Ollie Lawrence and continually asked questions of Sharks’ defence.

Yellow peril for Worcester.

While Warriors’ lineout struggled at times it was their ill-discipline that allowed Sale to gain a foothold in the match and threaten to reduce the deficit.

Worcester’s penalty count increased rapidly in the second half leading referee Adam Leal to lose his patience as he sent Gareth Milasinovich to the sin-bin.

Matt Cox also received at yellow card at the death for killing the ball and if Sale had been clinical those penalties could have proved costly.

But Sale were no saints either as wing Paolo Odogwe was sin-binned shortly after the interval for a deliberate knock-on.

Young guns go down fighting.

Looking at the contrasting teams it was always going to be a tough ask for a weakened Sale side to even get close to Warriors.

But to their credit the visitors did not make life easy for their in-form opponents.

Although they only had a Kieran Wilkinson penalty to show for their efforts Sale fought bravely throughout and were led brilliantly by 20-year-old flanker Ben Curry.

Even when Sharks went down to 14 men at the start of the second half they dug deep to shut out Warriors during that 10-minute period when Odogwe was in the sin-bin.