IT’S a case of good and bad news in the Worcester Warriors camp ahead of Saturday’s Amlin Challenge Cup visit of Irish province Connacht (3pm).

‘Pocket Rocket’ Sammy Tuitupou misses the pool two clash with a bout of ’flu, but Alex Grove has recovered from his exertions with Scotland and will start at centre alongside Dale Rasmussen against the Magners League basement boys.

An added bonus for director of rugby Mike Ruddock is that injury-cursed fly-half Matthew Jones came through his Guinness ‘A’ League run-out at Newcastle on Monday night unscathed and will take a place on the bench — his first outing since breaking a bone in his foot against Gloucester in April.

Sixways chief Ruddock said: “Alex was a bit tired, battered and bruised last week — he also had a dead leg — so I only put him on the bench and planned not to use him unless I had to.

“He was pretty smashed up after his Scotland exertions — they made over 200 tackles to beat Australia — so his work-rate was right up there.

“He has eased back in here now and trained really well yesterday. We had some full-on, physical sessions with live tackling and he got stuck in, so he’s ready to go.

“With Sammy out, you will probably see Dale at 12 and Grovesy at 13.”

Ruddock added: “Matthew will sneak in on the bench after playing for the ‘A’ team on Monday. That is good news for us because he has been out for a long time and has had a couple of setbacks.

“It was great to see him come through Monday’s game with no ill effects and he trained really well yesterday. He’s a popular lad in the squad and a very talented player, so I just hope he has a bit more luck and can put a run of games together and discover the form I think he is capable of.

“I fully expect Matthew to have plenty left in his tank and come back from his injuries. He is in the last year of his contract, but I’ve spoken to him and his agent and said there is no point talking about that until we have seen that he has overcome his injury. Once he’s back, has played a few games and there has been no recurrence of it, we’ll sit down and talk.”

Meanwhile, Chris Pennell is continuing his recuperation from reconstructive knee surgery and Ruddock expects the full-back to feature in the second match against Connacht a week on Friday.