WORCESTER Warriors full-back Chris Pennell has hailed the impact of Southern Hemisphere wing duo Bryce Heem and Cooper Vuna.

Heem, a powerful runner, has made a flying start to his Warriors career since arriving from New Zealand.

Vuna, an Australian international, had a key role in helping the Sixways club to promotion from the Championship last term but struggled in Worcester’s 48-18 defeat against Saracens.

“Coops came in last year and made a big impact and Bryce has had a great influence,” said Pennell.

“When you get guys coming in from the Southern Hemisphere, they can see the game slightly differently and offer a huge amount. But we are blessed in the back three.

“We have some extremely good players waiting in the wings with the likes of Ben Howard and Tom Biggs, while Sam Smith is coming back from injury and Perry Humphreys is coming through.

“These guys are putting pressure on the starters every week and that’s massively important because we know now that, as a club, you can’t afford to drop off on performance or not know your job because there is a guy there who is hungry to step in.”

Worcester-born-and-bred Pennell has played 148 times for Warriors after coming through the club’s academy and bursting on to the scene in 2007 when he made his Premiership debut against Bath.

His outstanding 2013-14 form saw him rewarded with a Premiership player-of-the-season nomination and a call-up to the England squad ahead of the 2014 summer tour to New Zealand.

Pennell made his England debut coming off the bench against the All Blacks at Eden Park.

He believes Warriors have made an encouraging start to their Premiership season with a mixture of frustration and disappointment.

Pennell said: “It was an unknown coming into the league with a pretty inexperienced Premiership side.

“But I was massively confident with the group we’ve got and I knew the guys were more than capable of playing at this level.

“I think it was a case of a few of them having to see what the league was like before they truly believed it but hopefully that’s embedded into them now.

“It has also been a frustrating and disappointing start to the season to a certain extent because we genuinely feel we could have picked up a few more league points.

“Given the difficult time we had the last time we were in the Premiership, perhaps I should not be quite so greedy. It’s a good start but that’s what it is – a start.

“To get a win in the first game was great and it might have relieved any underlying pressure. The win allowed us to focus on the next game.”