“DANGEROUS” wing Melani Nanai is the “perfect” go-to man for Worcester Warriors players according to centre Ollie Lawrence.

Nanai made his much-anticipated debut for Warriors in Saturday’s 36-28 defeat at Bath in the Premiership Cup.

It took Lawrence less than two minutes to find Nanai in space as the new signing proved to be a constant threat with ball in hand at The Rec.

The 26-year-old clocked 117 metres — more than any other player from either side — and beat the most defenders with eight.

Lawrence was impressed by Nanai’s “outstanding” footwork in the match and insisted he and his Warriors team-mates just needed to give “him the ball early” to allow the fleet-footed flyer to work his magic.

“He’s a class player and a really good lad,” Lawrence said.

“It is good to see him playing in Worcester colours and will be exciting to see what he does this season.

“He has got absolutely outstanding feet and puts people into space so it’s perfect for a 13 or someone running off him to get on the end of things.

“It’s a case of giving him the ball early to give him time to do what he does and then just work off him.”

It was Nanai’s first competitive match since starring for Auckland-based Blues in Super Rugby this summer.

The talented back had been put on the All Blacks standby list for the World Cup and was due to play in the Mitre10 Cup before being released by the New Zealand Rugby Union in August.

“I thought he played really well,” said Lawrence on Nanai’s Warriors debut.

“He was really sharp and just excited to get going so I thought he had a really good performance.

“If you put him into space early he is dangerous one-on-one with defenders which is perfect.”

Nanai and Lawrence were part of an entirely different starting XV to the one that thrashed Leicester Tigers 57-23 at Sixways on the opening day.

Bath led 24-0 before Warriors battled back with scores from Marco Mama, Lawrence, Ted Hill and Francois Hougaard to claim a try bonus point that keeps them top of Pool C.

However, Lawrence felt Worcester “could have won” had they taken more of their opportunities and reckoned they needed to hit the training ground hard ahead of Friday’s home clash with Exeter Chiefs (7.45pm).

“We knew it was going to be tough at The Rec,” Lawrence said.

“I thought we played well but we have a lot of areas to work on.

“Luckily we have still got two games left before the Prem block starts.

“It has been a long, old pre-season but we have prepared well.

“We have done lots of conditioning and rugby stuff so I feel like these games will build us towards the Premiership season. I’m looking forward to seeing where that goes.

“We will be happy to get that bonus point but at the same time we had opportunities there that we missed so we could have won that game.”