Director of rugby Gary Gold has refused to blame injuries for Worcester's 35-8 thrashing at the hands of Newcastle on Friday.

The Warriors trailed by just seven points at the break but the floodgates opened in the second period as tries by Alex Tait, Rob Vickers, Kyle Cooper and Juan Pablo Socino ensured the north-east outfit ran out 35-8 winners in their Aviva Premiership opener.

The visitors suffered a blow just before the match began as Wynand Olivier sustained a hamstring problem in the warm-up, with Ben Te’o stepping up from the replacements.

The British and Irish Lions star was then forced from the pitch himself on 27 minutes due to an arm injury but Gold is not looking for excuses.

Jamie Shillcock came on and played at full-back, forcing Josh Adams to go on the wing and Bryce Heem to move into midfield but Gold does not want sympathy.

"Obviously losing Wynand in the warm-up and Ben in the first half was disruptive, but that’s not an excuse," he said after the contest.

"We had a travelling reserve in Jamie with us. He is a 10 or 15 so we moved him onto the bench to cover us and Bryce had to move into the centre.

"When you get a hiding like that, I don’t really want to focus on it and I don’t want to look like it is an excuse.

"It was disruptive, but it is what it is. Losing Wynand was one thing but losing Ben was even worse. It was not ideal."