DIRECTOR of rugby Dean Ryan has urged his side to put Newcastle Falcons to the sword at Sixways tomorrow (Saturday, 3pm) as Worcester Warriors aim to secure their first win of the season.
Defeats to Leicester Tigers, London Irish, Harlequins and London Wasps has left Warriors bottom of the Aviva Premiership, with just one point to their name.
It was the heartbreaking 20-18 loss to Irish, though, which hurts Ryan the most and he hopes a morale-boosting victory over Falcons will erase it from his memory.
“We are looking at this as a big game, there is no doubt about that. We need to get a win and we need to get something going at home,” Ryan said.
“You can look at your glass half empty or half full. We missed out on an opportunity to put London Irish away and we should have done that quite easily.
“We could have been sat coming into this game looking for our second win of the season and then we would be talking about building from there.
“But I am trying to keep everybody aware that this is still early days in terms of this group and we have got some people coming in who will strengthen us.”
Among those include centre Alex Grove who looks set to feature against Falcons following his appearance for Worcester Cavaliers earlier this week, while Ryan revealed fly half Paul Warwick could also be in contention.
But Ignacio Mieres is expected to retain the number ten jersey despite sustaining an eye injury during Warriors’ defeat to London Wasps last Saturday.
Ryan was disappointed by the manner of the loss at Adams Park and he is keen to see a response from his senior players. But he admitted his side will have to dig deep to see off a stubborn Newcastle outfit.
“Dean Richards is an outstanding director of rugby, so after 15 months since starting that project he would expect his side to be pretty resilient and they have been,” Ryan added.
“They have a strong set piece and drive and they can put a lot of pressure on you, so I am not surprised teams haven’t been able to put them away.”
