"We got it wrong," admits Worcester Warriors chief Dean Ryan after 75-22 A-League battering at Newcastle Falcons

Worcester’s second string, the Cavaliers, were runners-up in the competition last season but were hammered by 75-22 by an experienced Falcons at Kingston Park.

The Cavaliers led 17-7 after 15 minutes in Monday's match but the hosts racked up 47 unanswered points in the second-half.

Ryan said Worcester's ’ bid to “protect” senior players due to injuries in the support group had backfired in the north-east.

“We have got some issues and we were disappointed with our A-League situation on Monday,” said Ryan. “We got it wrong a little bit.

“I think we strayed too far into the development side while we were trying to protect some of the senior guys because of problems we’ve got in the senior team.

“We probably picked too young a side and we ended up with four of five guys aged 17 or 18 years old facing experienced players.

“We have been pretty good at the A-League and I think it’s only the second time we’ve lost in two years.

“We took a development view on Monday which was wrong."

Ryan added: “It is something we’ve looked at internally because it’s not good for development.

“We’ve got big games week in week out and we probably lost focus on our A-League footing and, from a fans perspective, we’re sorry that was the case.

“We are very committed to our A-League programme because it’s a vehicle we’ve had a huge amount of success in. We probably took our eye off the ball to try to protect a few people."

Ryan said injuries to senior players such as Luke Baldwin, Sam Smith and Sam Lewis had exposed the younger players.

“We have quite a few injuries that sit in a group underneath the first team – the likes of Luke Baldwin, Sam Smith, Sam Lewis, Shorty (Andy Short) and Andy Symons," he said.

"They are our protected layer of competition and that’s why we lost focus on our A-League.

“They are starting to come back but we lost them through training injuries so we are running a risk of our front-end playing too many games because we have lost our support group.

“There were 100-odd caps on the field for Newcastle and we got caught out.

“We had a lot of people held in reserve while we waited to find out what the bump and attrition rate was from the weekend against Saracens.

"We have learned our lessons. We have such a strong feel about how A-League rugby develops us. The tempo of everything we have done at the club has come from our A-League.

“We can think of tough times over the last 18 months and the A-League has always been there to help us."