ANDY Keast made his presence felt for the first time at Worcester Rugby Club with a half-time blast which awoke his side.

The backs coach, in his first match since his arrival at Sixways, tore into his new troops after a sorry first half show which saw Worcester trailing 8-3 at Birmingham & Solihull.

Worcester went on win the game 30-13 with a much improved second half display to keep their National One title hopes intact. And for head coach John Brain, he was delighted the players responded to Keast's home truths.

"Andy certainly won't pull any punches," said Brain. "What we were able to say to them at half time, they knew was the truth.

"We were trying to play champagne rugby when you've just got to build things and get a platform first. I let Andy do most of the talking at the break because that is the first time he has had a good look at them. Our execution was very poor and we said: 'Look we've trained all week, we've worked on certain things and we've only actually attempted one of the moves that we'd worked on.' That one we almost scored from!"

Ben Clarke bagged two tries and Chris Yates one in the second half as the promotion-chasing team picked up an invaluable win. They dropped another point on leaders Rotherham because of a failure to score four tries and clinch the bonus point. However, for Brain it was four points won rather than one dropped.

"We've had a good second half which we've won 27-5," he added. "We still had too many opportunities which went begging but, having said that, we were looking at a potential Armageddon situation at half time.

"Once we scored an early try in the second half, I never felt we would lose the game. It was just a question of whether we would score four tries or not. Unfortunately we didn't but at Birmingham & Solihull, 30-13 is a good result.

"There is a lot we can take from the match and I thought the supporters were excellent - they really helped us. I thought we dominated a match which, we always knew, would be very difficult for at least 60 minutes."

Brain, however, will still reflect on a story of missed chances after Worcester squandered a number of glorious openings.

"We had two v one on two occasions where the try line was begging so that was disappointing," he said. "However, given time, once Andy has had a chance to work with the backs, we will be executing those chances regularly."