WE felt we could have edged our game with Harlequins on Friday night, but Nick Evans was on hand to win it for them late on with a drop-goal.

Yesterday, we went through the video of the match and we conceded 20 penalties, which will always make it difficult to win in the Aviva Premiership.

We went to The Stoop to play some rugby though, having analysed Quins well in the build-up to the game and we did everything we said we would.

We are analysing our opponents thoroughly each week and we need to stick to that as it is starting to show the benefits.

The referee has a tough job to do and it is one that I wouldn’t want.

As a player, it is sometimes difficult to see what the referees are seeing in the scrum. For me, if Quins get a good hit on our scrum and we are going backwards, then they will get possession and we should play on, rather than giving penalties all the time.

We started off well in the scrum at Quins and the decisions were going our way, but then that seemed to change and they were all going against us – I don’t know how it can change so dramatically but, like I said, it’s a tough job to do.

Despite losing to Quins, we still took five points from our last two games, which were against the top two sides in the table.

The performance at Quins was important for us as it proved that we can play well away from home. If we can win our home games and pick up a few victories on the road too, then we will soon be climbing the table and in contention for the top half.

We now have the confidence to go to places like The Stoop and treat it like a home game – we still need to get over the mental barrier of playing away from Sixways, but we are going the right way.

Harlequins were missing a few players, but not that many, but as a team they all play to the same system and the guys who came into the team are all quality players.

On the coach home, it was pretty quiet as we were all very frustrated that we had not won.

Alex Grove made a good few line-breaks and attacked really well – he had a cracking game and he will go from strength-to-strength on the back of that performance.

We also saw Euan Murray in a Worcester shirt for the first time and he is solid in the scrums and a good ball-carrrier.

He has fitted in with the boys straight away and I’m sure he will be a good player for this team for several years to come.

We now return to Amlin Challenge Cup action on Thursday when Perpignan come to Sixways and I’m sure they will bring a big set of players with them.

However, I am confident we can combat that and we can be more attacking and look to play more rugby than them.

I faced them several times while I was at Toulon and they always have a big, heavy pack and look to maul the ball a lot – it should be a good game.