BACKS coach Sam Vesty admitted he was “gutted” to see Worcester Warriors end their Anglo-Welsh Cup campaign with a 33-27 defeat at Dragons.

Warriors arrived at Rodney Parade needing a victory to stand any chance of progressing to the semi-finals for the first time in their history.

And Vesty’s young side pushed hard for it as hooker Kurt Haupt struck inside the opening 30 seconds before centre Dean Hammond and wing Tom Howe crossed the whitewash.

Fly-half Sam Olver also landed all five of his kicks at goal as Warriors led 27-19 going into the final quarter of the game.

But, with ex-South Africa international Zane Kirchner pulling the strings for Dragons, the hosts fought back and snatched victory courtesy of a late Tyler Morgan try.

Warriors came away with a losing bonus-point but Northampton Saints secured top spot in Pool Three and a place in the last four following a 36-10 win over Harlequins.

“It was a good outing from a lot of our younger guys with some really stand out performances out there,” Vesty said.

“But I am gutted not to get the win.

“I think we put in a lot of effort, but we should have done better in the last 20 minutes and come away with the win.

“We didn’t put any pressure on them for longer enough periods.

“We were in their half enough times but then we would give a penalty away or knock the ball on and that just put us back in our own half.

“Kirchner was playing very well at 10 for them and he kept the game down our end as much as he could.”

Warriors made 12 changes to the side that defeated Exeter Chiefs last Saturday as he handed starts to youngsters Tom Dodd, Alex Hearle and 18-year-old centre Ollie Lawrence.

But the visitors got off to a flying start as Ben Howard broke through and released Haupt who touched down in the corner. Olver made the touchline conversion.

After his efforts to set up the opening try, Howard was then sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on and Dragons made him pay for it as Jayyrd Sage exploited a gap in Worcester’s defence.

The fleet-footed Ashton Hewitt followed this up with a stunning solo try on 20 minutes as he picked the ball up on halfway before sprinting home.

Kirchner’s second conversion gave the Welsh side a 14-7 lead.

But Warriors levelled things up six minutes later as Lawrence fed Hammond who went in under the posts. Olver added the extras and then a penalty from distance to put Warriors 17-14 in front at the interval.

Dragons struck three minutes into the second half when Howard failed to deal with Sage’s grubber kick and Kirchner nipped in to dot down.

But after the fly-half missed the conversion, the lead changed hands again as Howe wriggled through to score, which Olver converted.

Warriors’ stand-off continued his fine showing from the kicking tee with a penalty as Vesty’s team opened up an eight-point gap.

But Dragon’s experience told as 33-year-old scrum-half Sarel Pretorius crashed over before Kirchner fed the ball through to Morgan to score. Kirchner converted both to wrap up the victory.

Dragons’ academy manager James Chapron said: "We had asked for two things in the week from the boys– energy and physicality - and the boys dug in and delivered that.

“It gives us confidence and gets the show back on the road.”