ONE of Worcester Warriors’ British and Irish Cup heroes, Tiff Eden, says he is thankful to the coaches for putting faith in him.

The 20-year-old Eden kicked 15 points as Warriors won their first national cup competition with a comprehensive 35-5 success against Doncaster Knights in Friday’s final.

Eden’s performance, which included several impressive cross-field kicks, helped Warriors take control in rain-swept conditions at Castle Park.

He was influential as Warriors romped into 29-0 lead at the interval and, afterwards, drew praise from head coach Carl Hogg.

Eden said: “I am immensely thankful to the coaches and I am sure a lot of the other young players are for the faith they have put in us and given us the opportunity to play.

“Hopefully, we have rewarded their faith a bit. I am sure all of us have come on leaps and bounds across the season just from playing at this level and testing ourselves.”

He added: “Our game-plan was territorially based rather than running rugby.

“When you look at the magnitude of the game and the wet conditions we had to play a bit of territory .

“In the second-half, our discipline let us down a little bit and Doncaster thrived on it and upped their game and it made for a good spectacle.”

It was Eden’s second win against Doncaster in six days — he has been out on loan at Championship rivals Nottingham.

“I have had some game-time at Nottingham which I am thankful for the coaches at both clubs for organising,” he said.

“It’s helped me out massively to play week in, week out at a good Championship club.

“It’s what I needed and, hopefully, I have shown a bit of development in my time at Nottingham.”

Eden admitted Worcester Cavaliers’ defeat against Saracens Storm in the Aviva A-League final in January had helped them focus on Friday’s clash.

“After the A-League final when we came out of the wrong side of the result, we learned lessons and brought those to Doncaster,” he said. “You can see how far this group of players has come during the season.

“All of us have been working as hard as we can to play in the first team and there has been some movement which is exactly what we want.”