COACH Gordon Ross sang the praises of talented teenager Luke Scully after his “outstanding” showing for Worcester Cavaliers.

Academy fly-half Scully starred at inside centre as Cavaliers cruised to a 47-15 home victory over Sale Jets in the Premiership Shield on Monday night.

Ross, a former Scotland stand-off, said it was Scully’s first appearance in Worcester colours for “almost a year” due to a torn quad.

And the academy backs transition coach was delighted with the Welsh ace’s performance at Sixways.

“He was outstanding, both in terms of his defence and attack,” Ross said.

“These boys get a little bit frustrated sometimes because they are not playing that much but they will get their rewards for the way they train and the effort they put in off the field.”

Scully, an ex-Wales under 18s international, came through Ospreys’ youth set-up before joining Warriors’ academy in the summer of 2018.

But the Neath-born 19-year-old has yet to play for Warriors after a frustrating first season at the club.

“He played at the start of last year and did really well but tore his quad, so he didn’t play much,” Ross said.

“He had a bit of time at Moseley but that didn’t work out.

“But he has trained really well, comes in every week and does extra sessions.

“He is a talented player and with the guys that we had available on Monday night we mixed things around a bit.

“Gareth Simpson did a great job at 10 alongside Jono Kitto who gave leadership at nine.

“Scully can play 10 but is equally as effective at 12 and did really well there.

“I thought Oli Morris was also outstanding in his first game at Sixways as a Worcester player. He was everywhere.”

On Scully’s chances of playing in the first team, Ross added: “It is a big step up but that was his first real game of rugby in almost a year and the way he played was brilliant.

“We will have to see where opportunities come up. Wherever they are he will hopefully play as well as he did on Monday night.

“He is a good kid who trains hard and is getting better and better every time he plays.”

Scott van Breda got Cavaliers off the mark with a sixth-minute score before a penalty try and a Simpson touchdown on the stroke of half-time gave the hosts a 21-10 lead.

Worcester then kicked on with tries from Nick David, Isaac Miller, Matt McNab and Oli Morris.

“The boys were outstanding,” Ross said.

“When you play Sale you know you are going to have to play for 80 minutes and the boys stuck at it.

“The concentration was excellent and they were rewarded with some brilliant team tries.

“We asked them to play to space, be physical and try to play at a high tempo. They did that really well for the majority of the match.”

Cavaliers were also dominant in the scrum with the front row trio of Kai Owen, Beck Cutting and Ropate Rinakama making an impact off the bench.

“The guys in the first half were unfortunate to get on the wrong side of the referee,” Ross added.

“We felt we had the upperhand in the scrum but there you go.

“All the hard work in the first half paid off in the second.

“We kept the ball in hand, moved (Sale) side to side, played with a good intensity and in the end the opposition probably fatigued a little bit.

“But our bench had a huge impact in the game as well.”