BATH director of rugby Todd Blackadder had no complaints about the red card shown to fly-half Freddie Burns in the 29-13 Aviva Premiership win over bottom club Worcester.

Burns was sent off for a dangerous tackle during his first start for Bath after initially being shown a yellow card for up-ending Worcester wing Josh Adams in the 63rd minute.

Referee Luke Pearce then produced red after taking another look at replays with TV match official Graham Hughes.

Blackadder thought there was "nothing intentional" about Burns's tip-tackle but said: "It's definitely a red card. No excuses or complaints from us. As soon as a player's legs get above the parallel, it's in the hands of the referee. The red card was deserved."

With stand-off Rhys Priestland nursing an inflamed patella tendon, Blackadder now finds himself short of fly-halves for the European Champions Cup campaign which kicks off next Saturday at home to Italian side Benetton Treviso, with former Ebbw Vale player Josh Lewis ready to step up.

Although Bath collected five points and complete the first round of Premiership matches with four wins and two defeats, Blackadder was far from satisfied with aspects of the performance.

"The try just before half-time gave us something of a buffer but it didn't reflect who had the momentum. Worcester really had us under pressure," he said.

"But I couldn't be prouder of the team in the last 15 minutes. I could just see how far we had come in two weeks. We didn't throw it away. We kept our composure to take the bonus point win."

Blackadder singled out centre Ben Tapuai for an "outstanding performance" before the Australian was carried off on a stretcher off with a worrying head injury.

"Ben is talking," Blackadder said. "He's coherent, which is a really good sign. He got his head on the wrong side in a tackle and got a knee to the head. The good news is that the seems to be OK."

Tapuai was one of Bath's try scorers along with Aled Brew (two) and Jonathan Joseph, and Burns had added three conversions before replacement Josh Lewis kicked a late penalty.

Worcester's points came from tries by wing Dean Hammond and fly-half Jamie Shillcock, who kicked a penalty and conversion.

Worcester head coach Carl Hogg called for more clinical finishing from his side following the defeat.

He said: "We stuck to our task really well. They scored off a charge-down and (there were) a couple of tries they had to work really hard for.

"Again, we get lots of opportunities inside the opposition 22. We just need to be more patient and more clinical in that area of the field.

"There was a huge amount of endeavour and effort and we need to keep hold on to that. The accuracy will come."