IAN Smith revealed the cost of Moseley’s British & Irish Cup defeat at Worcester is not as high as first feared but neither is it completely inconsequential.

The Billesley Common outfit not only lost their quarter-final 57-15, they also appeared to lose two second rows and their only authentic No.8 as Richard Hill’s league and cup favourites ran riot in the opening 40 minutes.

The visitors’ cause was not helped by the fact Richard Stott was forced off on the half-hour with a damaged elbow and fellow lock Paul Spivey did not reappear for the second period having taken a blow to the ribs.

Then three minutes after the restart back-rower Ben Maidment was replaced after he picked up a knock to his shoulder leaving all three doubtful for Friday’s relegation play-off opener at Plymouth.

However, the head coach expressed his optimism at least two will be alright. “Stotty and Ben Maidment should be OK, the real doubt is Paul Spivey,” he said.

That leaves Smith with David Lyons as the only totalluy fit second row, although Neil Mason has deputised in the engine room this season, but Smith conceded he had no options other than to risk someone at Sixways. “We had nobody else to play at Worcester,” he said. “We have got three second rows and we had to play two of them.

“Anyway we’ve got to get some continuity, we picked a team to do a job and, to be fair, the boys off the bench certainly did that. Neil Mason made a great contribution when he came on, David Lyons made a great contribution as did Andy Reay – things started to happen when they were on the pitch.”

The match, therefore, goes down as another missed opportunity for Moseley to find some rhythm before they go to Brickfields at the end of the week. But they failed to rise to that challenge in the first half and were 38-3 down and out of the competition by the midway point.

“I think it was a great opportunity to go down there and enjoy the good weather, good surface and decent crowd,’’ said Smith. “However, it’s alright for the coaches to say ‘Go out and enjoy it’ but they may have had their minds on other things – we’re all only human.

“We’ll be a different team this week because the boys tend to switch on when the important matches come.”

With just six games to save their season, Smith hopes he is right.