FLY-HALF Ryan Lamb admitted it was nice to pull on a Worcester Warriors’ shirt after making his first appearance of the season in their 42-12 win over Bedford Blues.

Lamb has recovered from a neck injury and his vision, particularly in the early stages, put Warriors on their way to a fifth straight Greene King IPA Championship success.

He forged a good understanding with centre Ryan Mills and it is a combination that Dean Ryan will be keen to see more of.

“Watching the lads go out there for the first few weeks has been frustrating,” said Lamb, who slotted five conversions.

“You have got to be on your toes – and that’s what Dean Ryan wants to breed at this club.

“We have brought in a lot of young lads who are eager and hungry to play and we have scattered that with a few experienced lads around the edges. When it comes off it looks good.”

Warriors, who ran in six tries and should have scored several more, started both halves with gusto on a cold and wet night at Sixways.

They led 14-5 at the interval and ran away with things after a strong second-half showing.

The only disappointment for the hosts was a frustrating 20-minute period leading up to half-time when they conceded a try and spilled the ball on several occasions.

And, perhaps surprisingly, Bedford had the final word when Dean Adamson sprinted away to score in stoppage-time and Jake Sharp kicked the conversion.

Lamb explained: “Bedford were tough around the breakdown and we had to figure that out at half-time to seal the ball and then we were able to run our patterns and we scored some decent tries.”

Flanker Mat Gilbert continues to grab the headlines and scored a brace of tries in another powerful performance.

Darren O’Shea, Matt Cox and skipper Gerrit-Jan van Velze, who notched his first try, got through a lot of work as, once again, Warriors’ forwards dominated.

Ben Howard showed flashes of brilliance in attack but spilled the ball on a couple of occasions and was yellow-carded for a knock-on in thwarting a Bedford try-scoring opportunity.

Tom Biggs had the crowd on their feet with Warriors’ first try after a cross-kick from Lamb had spotted the winger in space on the left touchline.

Val Rapava Ruksin was driven over from a line-out in the 12th minute and when Lamb notched his second conversion to put Warriors 14-0 ahead a rout looked on the cards.

But Bedford hit back and capped a period of pressure when Darryl Veenendall darted through a gap and passed to Joe Vandermolen to finish.

Bedford skipper Paul Tupai was yellow-carded at the end of the first-half and van Velze gave Warriors a dream start to the second period after a break from Mike Daniels.

He finished off a sweeping move, involving Howard and Max Stelling 40 seconds into the half.

Stelling extended the hosts’ advantage with Warriors’ fourth try before Gilbert was driven over.

Gilbert scored a sixth try and replacement Ignacio Mieres slotted the conversion.

But Blues’ Adamson grabbed a consolation try.

Lamb has recovered from the injury which sidelined him for three months.

“I did a bit of training and I did a chin-up and I felt my neck go,” he recalled. “I went for a scan and the medics saw a bulging disc. It was a frustrating one more than anything – it was never a case of not playing again. It’s fine now.”