ANY ambitions Worcester Warriors had of lifting the Powergen Cup this year were seriously undermined by Saturday's abject display against a rampant Northampton side.

The revised format of the competition means that Worcester are not dead and buried yet, but they will need to show considerably more purpose when they travel to Leicester on Saturday.

The hosts had little to show for their afternoon's work except for a late try from newcomer Johnny Tuamoheloa, who came on after Drew Hickey received a bump to the head.

Hickey's departure after just 21 minutes made Warriors' task all the more difficult.

But of more concern to the management was the shoulder injury sustained by Andre Van Niekerk late in the match. The South African hooker was called into the starting line-up when Chris Fortey trod on a nail at home the previous day.

Van Niekerk was then stretchered off after crashing into double try-scorer Ben Cohen at full pelt. Academy player Iyran Clunis took over for the last 10 minutes.

Cohen ran Worcester ragged for much of the match with the sort of display that made him an integral part of the World-Cup winning side two years ago.

He also epitomised the urgency among his team-mates, who looked desperate to make up for an underwhelming start to their Guinness Premiership campaign.

Warriors were pinned back from the very start and Saints set up camp just yards from the goal-line.

Fly-half Carlos Spencer was pulling the strings for Northampton and he made a diagonal run, which foxed the Warriors defence and gave Cohen the space to receive the ball on the wing.

Kai Horstmann moved to number eight after Hickey came off and he did at least make a pest of himself at the line-out on a day when very little else went right.

The Saints backs continued to run the show and it was no surprise when Cohen stormed over on the left wing again.

In contrast, Worcester's backs didn't appear to be on the same wave-length as each other.

Shane Drahm worked hard against his former side and there was the odd spark of excitement from Gary Trueman and another ex-Saint Mark Tucker, both of whom started for the first time.

But there seemed little understanding between the players and Nicolas Le Roux, so effective in previous games, was unable to provide any inspiration on his 29th birthday.

There was no improvement from Worcester in the second-half and Spencer continued to run the show for Saints.

The visitors brought on Sam Harding and, a minute later, he was on hand to put the finishing touches to a superb break from Jon Clarke.

Worcester eventually moved up a gear and Matt Powell might have scored had he not been upended by a dangerously high tackle from Mark Sodden, for which the Saints number eight was yellow carded.

With the opposition down to 14 players, Warriors cashed in with a trademark try.

Lock Craig Gillies won the line-out, Tuamoheloa took the ball into the maul and the pack drove over.

Drahm's conversion was the last contribution either side made in a match that most in the Sixways crowd will want to forget as soon as possible.

Worcester: Le Roux; Hylton, Rasmussen (Whatling), Trueman (Lombard), Tucker; Drahm, Powell (Gomarsall); Windo, Van Niekerk (Clunis), Taumoepeau, Collier, Gillies, Horstmann, Sanderson, Hickey (Tuamoheloa).

Warriors man-of-the-match: Kai Horstmann.

Referee: Martin Fox.

Attendance: 7,561.