SOUTH African flanker Francois Louw scored on his debut as Bath maintained their impressive progress in the LV= Cup with a seven-try thrashing of Worcester which sees them top Pool 1 with a maximum return.

Bath also gave a first start to Samoa prop Anthony Perenise, a tryscorer off the bench in the 46-16 rout of Newport Gwent Dragons last weekend.

Tom Heathcote put the home side ahead with a penalty after seven minutes but they infringed at the restart and Joe Carlisle replied with a 40-metre effort from a difficult angle.

Worcester strung together some impressive phases, testing the Bath defence both close to the breakdown and further out. A nicely-judged Carlisle pass set wing Josh Drauniniu free on the left but Dan Hipkiss was back to make the tackle.

Carlisle put Worcester ahead from the resulting penalty but Bath hit back immediately when young Ollie Woodburn offloaded to Heathcote, who raced in from 40 metres. The fly-half also added the conversion, putting Bath 10-6 ahead at the end of the first quarter.

They went further ahead on 25 minutes as Louw finished off a couple of strong drives by Ryan Caldwell and Nathan Catt but the best came on the half-hour.

Catt showed remarkable pace for a loosehead to collect a ricocheted kick on his own 10 metre line and launch a counter-attack which saw the ball pass through seven pairs of hands before Matt Banahan waltzed over in the opposite corner. Heathcote's conversion sent Bath in at the break with a three-score lead although Carlisle had struck the post with another penalty attempt.

Bath came out in search of the bonus point and were convinced they should have had a penalty try when Woodburn was pushed in the back as he stooped to collect a bouncing ball just short of the tryline. Drauniniu escaped with a ticking-off but, taking a scrum from the penalty, Bath were not long in claiming the try as Banahan's pass sent Jack Cuthbert over by the posts and Heathcote converted.

That 47th-minute score put Bath 29-6 ahead but that stung Worcester into a response 10 minutes later as Drauniniu carved through the home defence on an inside pass to touch down and Carlisle converted.

However they lost former Bath captain Alex Crockett to injury soon afterwards and then had flanker Sam Betty sin-binned in the 69th minute for a dangerous tackle on Louw, who carried on after prolonged treatment.

Further punishment was dealt out in the closing minutes as Ben Skirving drove over from close range and Woodburn finished off an overlap, both tries being unconverted. Finally, Nick Abendanon scored under the posts and Heathcote chipped over his fourth conversion for a personal tally of 16 points.

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