I was delighted with the way the boys responded to the disappointment of Henley with a rousing display against Coventry on Saturday.

They came in for some criticism after their poor showing at Dry Leas and they were the first to admit they were lucky to come away from there with a win.

However, there was nothing lucky about the 27-16 victory at Sixways.

They were very, very committed and the players really wanted to go out there and prove a point. I usually make a number of substitutions in the second half but, against Coventry, I could see everyone desperately wanted to stay on and make a difference. Therefore even people who went into the game maybe not 100 per cent wanted to be part of a vital win which keeps our title challenge on track. That to me was a very positive sign.

When you talk to any of the players here they will tell you what a great spirit we have in the camp and I think that was evident on Saturday. Everyone wanted to pull together and eventually we wore down a very physical side and got the fourth try and the coveted bonus point.

It was a big confidence boost for the players because they felt as if they had let the club and the supporters down at Henley. They knew they had not done themselves justice but I also knew that the performance just wasn't the real Worcester. The players have been big enough to lay on some beer for the supporters on Saturday as a way of an apology. They have paid for two kegs of beer, one lager, one bitter, so fans can come to Sixways, enjoy a free beer while watching the England v Scotland Six Nations game. Kick-off is 2pm so we will start serving the drinks an hour before. It was a nice gesture from the players and shows the honesty there is at the club.

We do not hide behind excuses here, we weren't ourselves at Henley and we accept that.

We were certainly the real deal again against Coventry. In a way though, I thought the score did not reflect our domination. Just as we were lucky to get away from Henley with a win, we were slightly unfortunate not to put more points on board at the weekend.

One of the most positive things to come out of the game was the performance of fly-half Tony Yapp who came in for his first National One start of the season.

Earl Va'a has been struggling with an Achilles injury and, with this weekend off as well, we thought it was prudent to give him some time to recover.

Tony was excellent not just in the attacking sense but also defensively. The biggest compliment I can pay him is that I would be happy for him to keep his place now because he has shown he can perform well in the league. However, that was just one performance. He now needs to reproduce that in training and show he is hungry enough to keep his place.

I must make a point about the officials during the match. I thought they all had shockers on Saturday. Week to week management of the game is poor and there was so much inconsistency against Coventry - the worst aspect of that being that I felt my players were being put in danger because a blind eye was being turned to some dangerous play. Scott Barrow copped a head-on tackle during the game and nothing was done. The try Coventry got came from a situation where Alistair Murdoch was pulled into a maul and nothing was done.

The game is hard enough without things going unpunished and the things he did blow up for just underlined his inconsistency. I saw a similar thing in Sri Lanka when I was watching the England cricket team last week. I thought some of the decisions were just outrageous. I just hope we get someone like Ed Morrison for the April 1 game at Leeds because we need a referee who will let the game flow but will also see the fouls which should be punished.

I know they are under stress and a lot of referees have left the game because of that. However, it is just another example of the poor structure we have here in England. We do not even know what we are playing for at the end of the season yet!

The referees are getting further away from the on the field development and if they are not careful they will be left in the past.