Warriors boss Mike Ruddock has ordered his players to show a positive reaction and ‘front up’ when they face Harlequins in the EDF Energy Cup on Saturday (kick off 3pm).
Worcester lost the opening game in the competition to Welsh giants Ospreys on home soil last weekend in what the Director of Rugby branded an ?unacceptable performance?.
And after a week of hard training and home truths ? that included an honesty session with the playing squad – the Warriors boss is now expecting to see a response on the field when his troops face Quins.
?We were all very disappointed with our performance against Ospreys and we felt we let the club, the fans and ourselves down ? now we need to respond,? said Ruddock.
?I thought up at Leicester Tigers we let in a couple of tries that were difficult to pre-plan or prepare against. But against Ospreys were missed tackles and were very poor and got exactly what we deserved.
?We have got to reduce our errors for a number of weeks now and tighten up our defence. It is a pretty simple game if you make tackles.?
Ruddock also revealed the players had been put through their paces with a full contact session on Wednesday morning that was refereed by Tony Spreadbury.
?They were well aware that we weren?t happy with the level of commitment to the tackle against Ospreys. Hopefully we have put that right and will front up on Saturday and get some tackles in,? he said.
?This group are a resilient bunch, sometimes you see the best of them when their backs are against the wall, and there is every chance they will now put that performance to one side and will press on and get things right.
?The management and players had an honesty session this week to resolve any grey issues with our game or preparation. The feedback was positive and now we move on and improve.?