UTILITY back Scott van Breda suffered an arm injury in Worcester Cavaliers’ 31-27 loss at Newcastle Falcons in their final Premiership Shield match of the season.

The South African who has been in Alan Solomons’ first-team plans in recent weeks due to his impressive displays for Cavaliers was forced off a minute before half-time at Kingston Park.

Warriors' second-string side then had to reshuffle their back-line at the start of the second half when Alex Hearle failed to return to the field after going off for a head injury assessment and had to bring on scrum-half Luke Baldwin in the winger’s place.

However, Worcester gave a strong Falcons side who had already topped the Northern Conference, an almighty fright and claimed two losing bonus points.

Cavaliers played some scintillating rugby in the first half and eased into a 17-0 lead at the break with Hearle, departing centre Wynand Olivier and wing Perry Humphreys crossing for brilliantly taken tries.

But Falcons hit back strongly in the second period and, having pulled level by three-quarter time, secured the try bonus point then victory in a frenetic finale.

Having spent a large part of the second 40 minutes manning the barricades in defence, Cavaliers reasserted themselves in attack and late tries from flanker Matti Williams and Baldwin ensured they made the long trip back to Sixways with some reward for their efforts.

Cavaliers finished third in the Northern Conference behind Newcastle and Northampton Wanderers.

Cavaliers: van Breda (Heward 39); Humphreys (Tonks 41), Olivier, Butler (C), Hearle (Baldwin 52); Simpson, Arr; Cosgrove (Reid 60), Miller (Phillips-Taylor 79), Mudariki (Morris 61), Dodd (Thomas-Hall 73), Phillips, Kirwan, Williams (Miller 76), Cox.