Director of coaching David Young said he was pleased with his new look Blues’ squad first outing of the season against Worcester Warriors.

Despite losing a keen game narrowly by 10 points to 12, he felt there were more pluses than minuses to come out of the exercise.

“We have worked the boys hard all week in our training camp,” he said, “and to be honest we were a bit concerned about whether there was anything left in the tank for this evening. Our main focus has been on the training and that has been a success. But the team was still going strong deep into injury time and that is a real bonus. Now we return home and have another couple of hard weeks before we test ourselves thoroughly against Leicester Tigers and that should be very interesting.”

Young revealed that Nathan Budgett, who was injured in the 42nd minute, had been taken to hospital for a precautionary X-Ray after sustaining an injury to his upper arm while prop Martin Jones had mild concussion after a blow to the head. There should be an injury update on Monday.

Meanwhile Young was pleased with the contribution of USA Eagle, Kort Schubert. “He’s fitted in well since joining us on Wednesday evening and, considering he’s only had one run-out with the rest of the squad, he did well after replacing Nathan Thomas in the 62nd minute.”

Blues’ chief executive Robert Norster said that as far as he knew next Saturday’s Arms Park fixture between a Cardiff XV and Rotherham was still on despite reports of financial difficulties at the Yorkshire club. Again there would be no further news before Monday.