ACADEMY manager Mark Hewitt praised his side for their second-half response against Northampton Wanderers in the 52-26 ‘A’ League defeat at Franklin's Gardens.

Despite being 24-0 down at the break, Cavaliers fought back to 31-26 before Wanderers scored a flurry of late tries to end Worcester's resistance. But Hewitt insisted that it was a second-half performance to be proud of.

Max Stelling stormed over the tryline for two second-half scores as Cavaliers hunted Northampton's lead. Ben Howard and Tom Chapman also went over the whitewash as Cavaliers came within six points of taking the lead, before Northampton ran away with victory.

Hewitt said: "We could have raised the white flag and got completely run over but we regrouped, showed a lot of character and played with a great attitude and a lot of passion in the second period.

"In that second-half we came out, defended really well and put them under a lot of pressure defensively and pegged the score back."

Hewitt was delighted with the performance of his backs and said there were a lot of positives to take from the game.

He added: "The backs played well and Max took his tries superbly. There were some really good performances in that back line and, in particular, Dean Hammond was exceptional.

"Considering the score at half-time we were looking like we were going to get blown away but we started playing with a lot more tempo, taking some quick tap-and-go penalties and we managed to get on the front foot."

Cavaliers' next game is against Sale Jets on Monday, September 30, in their first match of the campaign at Sixways.