Nottingham 24 Worcester Warriors 38

With Richard Hill’s men already assured of top spot in the regular season, it could have been easy for the Warriors players to lack focus and intensity.

But, to their credit, they came out firing and had the full five points wrapped up three minutes into the second-half, before a late three-try salvo from the hosts gave the scoreline a more respectable look.

Former England man Goode bagged another two tries, but it was the calm assurance with which he ran Worcester’s back-line that was really impressive.

His astute passing and ability to open up space for his outside backs was a key factor in the visitors taking a stranglehold on the game.

Goode’s scores, either side of a try from skipper Kai Horstmann, ensured Worcester were well on top by the break, while further touch-downs from Pat Sanderson, Jonny Arr and Ollie Frost put the game to bed.

Head coach Hill sent his bench players on and the re-shuffle heralded late consolations from Ben Johnstone, David Jackson and Andy Savage as the hosts battled on gamely.

Warriors were slow out of the dressing room, though, as Nottingham retained their kick-off before winning a first-minute penalty as the visiting defensive line flew up too quickly.

Fly-half James Arlidge, a New Zealand-born Japanese international and the league’s leading point-scorer, made no mistake with the simple effort.

Goode shunned the chance to level by kicking to touch when Warriors were awared a well-placed penalty.

The decision was justified, though, when hooker Aleki Lutui found Craig Gillies from the line-out and, following a couple of drives, scrum-half Arr popped to Goode, who ran over Arlidge’s flimsy attempt at a tackle to score.

Worcester’s fly-half improved his own try to hand his side a 7-3 advantage.

Arr made several pacy and probing breaks in the first period, but Warriors were guilty of over-playing at times and the final pass often went to ground.

While Arlidge is one of the division’s best goal-kickers, his defence left a lot to be desired and it was clear Warriors were targeting his channel.

Horstmann steam-rollered his way over the fly-half to score Worcester’s second try that Goode improved.

The visitors’ third try came from an over-thrown line-out by Nottingham hooker Tom Youngs, who is the brother of England scrum-half Ben and has swapped from playing as a centre for life in the front row.

Sanderson capitalised on the loose ball and fed the marauding Dale Rasmussen, who broke the line and made yards into home territory before off-loading to Goode, who sprinted in at the corner but missed the conversion.

A sloppy end to the half from Hill’s men gave Nottingham a glimmer of hope, though, as a quickfire pair of penalties were dispatched by Arlidge to make it 19-9 at the break.

However, any thoughts of a home fightback were well and truly quashed a matter of minutes into the second-half as Warriors secured their bonus-point try.

Horstmann picked up from the base of a typically-powerful scrum and fed Arr, who showed a good turn of pace to out-strip the defence and touch down, handing Goode a simple conversion.

Worcester’s fourth try took the wind out of Nottingham’s sails and it was not long before former captain Sanderson got in on the act.

Joe Carlisle, on as a replacement for Goode, kicked a penalty for crossing to touch and, once the rolling maul was set, no-one was going to get the ball out of Sanderson’s hands.

With the full five points in the back, Hill had the luxury of sending all his bench players on early, but the mass changes played havoc with Worcester’s defensive systems as they leaked three tries in the final stages.

Warriors’ press defence, which had worked so well in the first-half, began to fall foul of referee Tim Wigglesworth and he awarded a brace of penalties to Nottingham for off-side.

These were kicked to touch and helped provide a platform for the hosts to build on and, following an intense spell of pressure, centre Johnstone hit the crash-ball and burst over for his side’s first score.

Frost, on for Arr as one of the many replacements, spotted a gap to dart over for Worcester’s sixth try, which Carlisle converted, but the Nottingham backs rallied in the final 10 minutes to grab two more tries.

With one promising attack halted on the line, wing Marcel Garvey booted the ball into touch from a ruck and was sin-binned.

The hosts took advantage when full-back Jackson popped up to gather a loose ball near the line and flop over for a consolation score.

Referee Wigglesworth found five minutes of stoppage time from somewhere, which gave Nottingham wing Savage the chance to burst through and round off the scoring.