Director of Rugby Mike Ruddock praised the return of star centre Sam Tuitupou after he produced an all-action display against London Wasps.
The Pocket Rocket made an impressive comeback after a month and a half absence with a trademark all action show before being taken off with just over ten minutes left.
“Sammy hasn’t played a lot of rugby of late, he has been carrying a back injury so we set a time line on him. He was fatigued at the end so 65 minutes was plenty for him,” said Ruddock.
“If we ran him the last 15 minutes there was a chance he would have for injured or made that old injury worse. I am hoping by doing that we have got an opportunity to play him next week.
“He is a class act, an ex-All Black who is very powerful and very direct. For example, at Sale recently we had 60 percent of the ball and we had to make 85 tackles to 142 from Sale.
“Imagine if some of those tackles by them had been on him, what a difference that might have made.
“There is a lot of good things about our game, a lot of good structure. But ultimately you have got to cross the whitewash and players like Sammy can do that, certainly make the breaks to create that.”
Meanwhile, Warriors are left to play a waiting game to discover the outcome to an injury to skipper Pat Sanderson after the talismanic leader was forced off just after half-time.
“Pat has taken a heavy knock, a stinger type injury at the moment and we will have to see how he pulls up,” added Ruddock.
“If there is anybody you would put your money on to recover it would be Pat, he is such a hardy guy.
“He took a stinger from the neck and shoulder area that was impacting on his one side. Until the pain eases off we won’t be able to examine him fully.
“We also took Tevita off as he had run his race so I had to make a call and Dale had a dead leg, I don’t anticipate that will be a problem for next week.
“It is important we manage our squad over the coming games to get everybody ready. If someone goes down first minute next week it is important everyone has match time under his belt.”