HEAD coach Carl Hogg has praised Worcester Warriors’ young guns after shooting down Nottingham in their opening match in the British and Irish Cup.

Centre Dean Hammond bagged a brace of tries and fly-half Tiff Eden finished with 16 points after a faultless display of goal-kicking in Warriors’ 26-19 victory yesterday at Meadow Lane.

Director of rugby Dean Ryan watched from the stand and would have been impressed with Warriors’ second-half display .

“Dean Hammond has been out for a while but he took his chances well,” said Hogg.

“He’s robust and offers something different. He started at 12, which is not his usual position, and he adapted pretty well.”

Hogg added: “Tiff’s goal-kicking was fantastic — he finished with a 100 per cent record and it was a different challenge to the players than ‘A’ League rugby.”

Despite a second-minute try from Hammond, Warriors had Mike Daniels yellow-carded as they struggled in the first-half.

The hosts opened up a 16-10 lead at the interval and probably should have been further ahead.

But Warriors chipped away after the break through the boot of Eden, who celebrates his 20th birthday on Thursday.

Man-of-the-match Hammond scored the decisive try from the best flowing move with just 10 minutes remaining.

Hogg said: “It was an excellent win — especially away from home. This is a young group who have been doing really well on Monday nights.

“They have come up to Nottingham and it was a different contest from the ‘A’ League and much more like Championship-style rugby.

“We did well to get in front but then, after that initial spell, we were under pressure for long periods of the first-half through the set-piece, scrum and drive.

“It’s great that this group got exposed to that style and then found a solution.”

He added: “Eden kicked excellently at goal and kept us in contention and kept chipping away.Their stand-off kicked very well in front of the posts too.”

Hogg thought Warriors’ strength from bench was a crucial factor in the win. He added: “It’s very pleasing to win because the young group came into a Championship-style game and had the rough end of the stick in the first-half.”

Warriors host Munster ‘A’ in their next British and Irish Cup game at Sixways on Saturday.