AFTER a frustrating week for us we get back to action on Saturday when we face Exeter Chiefs at Sixways in National One.

We were hoping to go into the New Year with another win under our belts before the weather put paid to our fixture at Henley at the weekend.

Now we must re-focus as leaders of the competition and put on a show for the Worcester faithful.

Despite the snow, we were able to train in our superb indoor facility on Saturday and the players went away feeling as if they'd done a good day's work in spite of the weather. Obviously not many clubs have the sort of facilities that we have at Sixways and the training centre has been vital to the players in the last week. There is no substitute for playing though and it is frustrating for them that they have now had two weeks without a game and less training in that time. The problem with that is that I felt we had built up some momentum with the London Welsh victory and we have lost that with the break.

Exeter will obviously be up for the game because we are Worcester and everyone wants to beat us. Their main strength is their back row and they will be looking to keep things tight and will then let the ball do the work later on. However, once we stop them doing that they will not have too many options. I want to see us suffocate them, shut them down because I believe in our defence and it is the base for us to go on and score tries. Obviously we are looking for a win and the bonus point and we will try and speed the game up in certain areas on Saturday. I have talked over the past few weeks about changing the game-plan slightly and I think people will see the evidence of that against Exeter. I obviously believe in the way that we play but I think it is good to keep on adding variety to the game-plan and keep on developing the team.

I have only made one change to the side which beat London Welsh so comfortably with Dave Sims, who has this week become a father for the third time, taking a well-earned rest and Richard Denhardt coming into the team.

Other than that, some of the players have been struggling with flu this week - including me!

We've also had other little problems with Christian Evans going down with food poisoning while Andrew Lamerton has had a bug this week. Mohamed Benbouhout is coming along very nicely in training and he will be back in the 22. The French under-21 prop has taken a while to get used to things at Worcester since his arrival but he is really looking good now and he has a better understanding of English and what we want at Sixways.

Cameron Mather is another player who is close to a first-team recall - he has really looked the part on the training pitch and in the Warriors matches.

As a coach it is nice to have these selection posers with under-21 and full internationals straining at the leash to get back into the line-up. It also keeps the players who are in the shirts on their toes which is what a squad system is all about. I don't expect players to be happy when they are not in the first team but it is up to them to get themselves back in the frame by performing at a consistent level week in, week out in every moment on the training pitch and in matches.

One of the most encouraging signs around the club is that Andy Higgins is about to start training again after his wrist injury.

He has still a long road ahead of him to recover from the injury because he has lost a lot of weight while he has been out. He will start to build himself back up over the weeks but it will be a tough road back for him. The good thing is he has time on his side. One of my main ambitions as coach here is to get Andy into the full England team because he has the potential to do that.

To me it's vital that we have English players in our side because, after all, we are an English club.