WARRIORS winger Cooper Vuna admits Saturday’s derby clash with Gloucester is vital, but insists he and his teammates can ‘play them off the park’.
The New Zealand-born star, who crossed the whitewash twice against the Cherry and Whites at Kingsholm back in October, believes the young Warriors squad have found some momentum.
And Vuna hopes the team can add more points to their quest of pushing further up the table when they take on their rivals this weekend.
“We started this season with a bang after beating Northampton and we should’ve picked up more victories along the way since then,” said the 28-year-old.
“We shouldn’t be wary of teams like Newcastle and Irish and should be challenging to be further up the table with teams like Gloucester.
“We’re definitely going places and we’re building towards a bigger picture. This next home game against Gloucester is vital. We’re up against a team we fell just short against last time out so we need to make up for that, especially at home.
“We’re in a good mind set and we’ll try and keep the recent momentum going to hopefully play them off the park,” he added.
Vuna moved to Sixways from Japanese side Toshiba Brave Lupus in March last year and has since been reunited with fellow Japanese Top League star Dewald Potgieter, who has enjoyed an emphatic start to his time in Worcester having scored his debut try last Friday against Newcastle.
The winger believes the physical presence of the Springbok international will stand the club in good stead heading into the tail end of the season.
“Dewald has already adapted very well at the club and he’s the type of physical player we need.
“He was the last person I ran into during my time in Japan.
“I was returning a ball from a kick and when he hit me I thought to myself next time I’m going to kick the ball rather than run with it,” he added.
The mouth-watering derby clash kicks off at Sixways at 2pm.