Griffiths' Warriors role in doubt

Clive Griffiths' future with the Warriors remains uncertain

Worcester Warriors director of rugby Mike Ruddock would not be drawn on the future of Clive Griffiths following his side's convincing win over Petrarca.

Ruddock told BBC Hereford and Worcester that the club was constantly reviewing the performance of all staff.

"I have conducted a performance review with Clive, as I have done with all of my staff," he said.

"I'm in the process of feeding that back to Clive, so I wouldn't like to comment on any speculation."

Rumours emerged on Saturday morning that the former Wales rugby league coach was about to leave Sixways, with suggestions that Chris Latham could be about to step up to a player-coach role.

Mike Ruddock again refused to comment on these rumours, saying only that he would not be doing his job if he didn't utilise that kind of experience.

Chris is a very experienced player with 78 caps for Australia so you're always going to utilise experience like that

Mike Ruddock

"Chris Latham is vice-captain so obviously he's going to have an influential role with the back line in the same way that Pat Sanderson is influential with the forwards," he said

"I wouldn't read any more into it than that.

"Chris is a very experienced player with 78 caps for Australia so you're always going to utilise experience like that, whether it is in a vice-captaincy role or trying to draw off the experiences of those boys in a training environment.

"This is regardless of any external speculation which is always going to happen," he added.

On the field, the Warriors produced a much-improved performance as they put Petrarca Padova to the sword with a crushing 68-17 victory.

Worcester went into the game knowing they needed to score eight tries if they were to book themselves a home tie in the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup.

They had crossed the visitors' line six times by half-time and went on to score ten tries in total, while Petrarca rallied in the second half to score three of their own.

Among the many highlights for the Warriors was a first try in Worcester colours for the former Welsh international centre Hal Luscombe.