ACADEMY coach Gordon Ross hopes Tom Heathcote can “kick on” after playing in his first competitive match in more than five months.

The fly-half came off the bench to play the remaining 25 minutes of Worcester Cavaliers’ 56-12 victory over Wasps A at the Ivor Preece Field.

His cameo appearance marked the end of a frustrating wait on the sidelines as he battled to overcome concussion following a succession of blows to the head.

Ross said it was great to see Heathcote back on the field and notching four conversions in his side’s eight-try triumph in the Premiership Rugby A-League.

“Tom has had a long, frustrating time out with concussion and head issues,” Ross said.

“But he has worked as hard as everyone else and he came on for a nice little cameo.

"It has been a tough couple of years for him and hopefully he can kick on from here.

“It is just a bit sad that the season has almost finished now, but he had a good impact.

“He has been around the club for the last few months and deserves a lot of credit for the way he has carried himself."

Looking to back up last week’s 52-21 thrashing of Sale Jets at Sixways, Worcester got out the traps well and soon opened the scoring.

After hooker Beck Cutting flew through a gap, Worcester mounted an attack and Ted Hill dived over for the visitors’ opening try, which Sam Olver converted.

Cavaliers then doubled their advantage on 12 minutes. Tom Dodd and Grayson Hart made surges before Olver’s crossfield kick found Tom Howe who produced a superb, diving catch to score.

Olver landed the touchline conversion to increase Worcester’s lead to 14-0.

Wasps struggled in the wet conditions early on as Marcus Garratt spurned a great chance when he fumbled the ball after charging down Hart’s kick.

But the hosts eventually found their feet and struck on 23 minutes when Owain James sent Dan Moor flying down the wing to score.

Cavaliers looked the more threatening and crossed the whitewash again when lock James Scott picked a great line and touched down. Olver added the extras.

But Wasps had the final say of the first half as TJ Harris got on the end of a driving maul to go over. Connor Eastgate fired home the conversion to reduce the deficit to 21-12 at half-time.

Worcester also suffered a further blow just before the break when Ollie Lawrence left the field with an elbow injury.

But the away side upped the ante in the second half with Matt Cox powering over from close range and Olver making no mistake from the tee.

Matters then went from bad to worse for Wasps as a sin-binning for Paul Hamber was followed by three tries – all converted by the returning Heathcote.

Hart barged his way over and Matti Williams scored an easy touchdown before Will Butler went in under the posts following some good footwork.

Cavaliers then capped off the victory with their eighth try as Andrew Durutalo made the most of a powerful scrum to score at the death.

Ross added: “It seemed like the backs got the credit last week as it was a nice evening but last night the forwards really rolled their sleeves, especially in the second half, and got the rewards.

“They all did well, particularly Tom Dodd who has been putting in some really good performances over the last few weeks.

“He has stepped up his physicality.

“James Scott led the line-out extremely well with some of the senior guys not playing.

“The guys that came off the bench, some of them loan players, also made a massive impact so it was a really good squad effort.”