DIRECTOR of rugby Dean Ryan conceded Exeter Chiefs’ speed of thought proved crucial in Worcester Warriors’ 30-15 Premiership downfall at Sixways.

Warriors were level at 15-15 after almost an hour before second-placed Exeter took the match by the scruff of the neck to record a bonus-point success.

“To be fair, they (Exeter) just saw things a little bit faster than us,” said Ryan.

“Those 10 minutes before half-time when they scored a transition try straight from the back of a line-out highlighted the speed they are used to seeing things at.

“I think our general structures are at the same pace as theirs but they had two or three players who can just step things up a little bit faster and that hurt us.

“Conceding seven points at that stage was a big lump of work, which we had to get back.

“We were pretty happy with the levels we were playing at and we just have to keep challenging ourselves to be a little bit better.”

Chiefs stunned Worcester with an early first-phase try from wing James Short after the visitors had taken the ball off the top of a line-out.

Ryan said: “You have to give them credit because it was a good score.

“We worked on it a little bit — they dummy the drive and come out with an extra man and they had an extra man. We got a little bit passive and caught up in some of the front guys.

“You don’t want those things to happen early on but we should give them credit for being able to push the ball right across the edge to score.

“Exeter are clinical and operating at a high level and that’s the sort of challenge we have got to try to meet.”

With five penalties from fly-half Tom Heathcote, Warriors remained in the match but Chiefs dominated possession in the second period to open up a 15-point victory margin.

Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter felt it had been a hard afternoon at Sixways.

“It was tough and that wasn’t unexpected to be honest,” said Baxter.

“I have been looking at Worcester’s games and from a lot of their results they are a team who can be in the fight.

“If you don’t get a lot of things right, they stay in the fight and they don’t go away and I think the first half was a combination of us being very good and very average.

“When we got tempo and accuracy into our game, we looked good and our two tries came from that.

“But I think we weren’t then prepared to work hard enough to get the A’s and B’s done, which would allow us to score tries and build periods of pressure.

“We put the ball on the floor a bit too much and were ill-disciplined when Worcester had the ball and it created lots of pressure for ourselves.

“You can’t go through many Premiership games giving the opposition so many scrum put-ins without that creating a lot of issues for you.

“But fair play to Worcester they didn’t let us have it all our own way in the first half.”

But Baxter felt Exeter stepped up a gear in the second period, which proved important.

“We were strong enough for an initial period after half-time, so that Worcester’s mistakes counted against them,” he said.

“There were a couple of kicks out on the full and a couple of things didn’t go to hand for them.

“We were able to capitalise when the bench came on to really gain some momentum and a foothold, both territorially and with possession.”