Warriors boss Mike Ruddock urged his wounded troops to use a painful defeat to Saracens to fire them into a response after disappointment at Vicarage Road.
Worcester slipped to a 19-6 defeat in Watford after a poor performance that Director of Rugby Ruddock conceded had been below the standards he sets for his side.
“We didn’t perform on the day,” he said. “We got an early drop goal but after that they dominated the early exchanges and it was one-way traffic. Our basics let us down, we knocked on and the penalty count hurt us.
“We put ourselves under pressure, we were in the game but our basics let us down.
“The crucial moment in the match was the sin bins. We didn’t get the score when they were down to 14 and didn’t look like scoring. When Pat Sanderson was off they scored, it was key.
“There was a lot of intensity in the forwards with both teams slugging it out. It was only when the game was lost that we moved the ball with tempo, by then it was too late.
“We had a couple of chances towards the end and could have got the bonus point but we didn’t deserve that.
Warriors now face Harlequins on Saturday at The Stoop and Ruddock believes his team will bounce back.
“We now have to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves down,” he said.
“This was an opportunity missed, but it was not a big step back after the Bristol win, they are a good team that will beat a lot of top teams on their own patch.
“Overall our game was not good enough but there are a lot of angry men in the dressing room who want to put it right.
“We didn’t play to our potential but we will look to use that defeat to spur us on and get the right result at Quins.”