WORCESTER Warriors produced a five-star performance on Saturday as they thrashed Newcastle Falcons on an emotional afternoon at Sixways.
With the club set to be suspended from all competitions on Monday due to the ongoing financial crisis, this may well have been the final time supporters watched their team in action.
But if so, what a way to go out it proved to be as second-half tries from Matt Kvesic, Gareth Simpson and Joe Batley cemented a bonus-point win.
Warriors fell behind in the first few minutes but after Alex Hearle and Duhan van der Merwe crossed, they never looked back and cruised to victory after the break.
The club will discover their long-term fate at 5PM on Monday afternoon but in the meantime, they had their match with Newcastle to deal with first.
And it was the worst possible start as a string of penalties in their own 22 saw Falcons kick to the corner and eventually score through hooker George McGuigan.
But Warriors grew into the game and were back level after 18 minutes as Alex Hearle ghosted over the line from close range after an initial driving maul got them to within inches of the try line.
It was not long before they had a second try as the returning Duhan van der Merwe strolled over with Falcons' found wanting out wide.
It would get better for Worcester as they began to turn the screw as Newcastle's Cameron Nordly-Kelemeti was sin-binned on the half-hour.
Warriors' Billy Searle kicked a penalty to make the scores 15-5 before a crucial moment in the game as McGuigan's second try was chalked off for obstruction on the stroke of half-time.
Newcastle came at Worcester in the second-half and were camped in the 22 for a period of five minutes but could not breach what was a stern Worcester defence.
Warriors crept back into it after the early second-half bombardment and Searle split the posts once more on the hour to make it 18-5.
Then the home side started to enjoy themselves and scrum-half Simpson went over under the posts after a punching line from Venter in the Newcastle 22.
The conversion made it 25-5 and when replacement Matt Kvesic scored, the atmosphere erupted but they were not done yet.
Kvesic again made a break through a now beleaguered Falcons defence and second-row Batley was on hand to pop the cherry on the top of the already iced cake.
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