If Mike Ruddock is as swift and accurate with his treatment of Worcester's ailments as he was with their diagnosis, Sixways is set for some rollicking good fun.

The likelihood, however, is that his new dawn will shimmer rather than blaze into being.

"We looked like a side that is in between two game-plans," the Warriors director of rugby neatly summarised after beginning his reign with the most wretched of defeats against a side many expect to struggle this season.

His team neither retained their mastery of Plan A, nor showed any conversance with Plan B and their fumblitis and tacticalus nervosa strangled whatever it was they were trying to achieve. Exactly what that was, was not clear.

Worcester were as far from Ruddock's alldancing, all-running Wales team as it was feared they would be. At times their handling, angles of running and contact skills were hideous.

There was a 30-second period late in the game, as they chased a loss bonus, that most passes seemed to hit the floor, those that didn't sailed behind the intended recipient and when one finally met Dale Rasmussen in stride, the big Samoan came over all Roberto Duran-like and demonstrated hands of stone.

Comparing the visitors' attempts to play with width and pace with the beautiful balance and distribution of Bath's play making inside centre Shane Berne, was similar to watching John Travolta dance next to an aged relative at a family wedding.

No matter, Worcester have always got their set-piece haven't they? Mostly yes. But even that can only be described as a qualified success.

When was the last time a Warriors pack lost one against the head on their own five-metre line? That summed up how bad this display really was.

Home scrum half Michael Claassens couldn't believe his luck when he snatched the ball away for Ryan Davis and then Daniel Browne who scored between the sticks. Soft scores are so Old Worcester, Phil Larder must have been turning in his villa.

Certainly it must have confirmed Ruddock's suspicions that this is a side that needs extra tuition when it comes to threequarter play.

"I am hugely disappointed and hugely frustrated," the Welshman admitted afterwards. "I said that to the players after the game, there were so many errors and we paid for them.

"I thought we were a game short in pre-season. We looked pretty good in the first half against London Irish and that gave us a little bit of confidence that our skills would be OK under pressure - but they were not today."

Incredibly they could, and probably should, have salvaged a bonus point from this match. Indeed had they capitalised when they were in the ascendancy at the start of the second period they might even have gone on to win.

But, in the 53rd minute, an ill-at-ease Shane Drahm missed a penalty for the second time and then soon afterwards Marcel Garvey dropped seven points when he fumbled Rasmussen's off-load when catch and dive was all that was needed.

Had the winger held on Worcester could have been back in it at 19-17 - with some momentum and had Thinus Delport been more decisive in the last minute a point was there for the taking, He didn't, it wasn't and rightfully so.

Strangely Worcester actually took the lead when Drahm landed a 40 metre goal early on. By the eighth minute they were behind for good though when Berne danced free to give Claassens a debut score.

Another new boy, Jack Cuthbert made it 12-3 midway through the half as Delport thought more about levelling Tom Cheeseman than clearing Berne's wild pass.

Worcester responded with a deliciously cheeky try on the half hour when, just inside Bath territory, Kai Horstmann took the ball off the top and tapped down for Matt Powell to knife through the middle of the lineout.

At 12-10 they were still in it but Cuthbert's second immediately before the break effectively ended the contest. Berne added a penalty for 22-10 with a quarter of an hour to go and then five minutes later the hosts grabbed their try-bonus when Browne capitalised on Worcester's haplessness.

Winger Delport finally got something right with two minutes to go when he took Chris Penell's pass and sneaked in at the corner.

It was about the first thing the full back had produced too after an afternoon misjudging high kicks, failing to communicate with Garvey and scuffing clearances.

To be fair to the 20-year-old at least he had the excuse that this was his first Premiership game, Tom Wood apart the rest of his teammates could not hide behind anything so understandable. All in all there were plenty of spills, but sadly few thrills and Ruddock has much to do.