THERE has been no breakdown in the relationship between Warriors and their fans, according to director of rugby Dean Ryan.

The Worcester chief was angered by supporters questioning his players’ commitment in the wake of the 22-9 defeat at London Irish.

Comments on internet forums prompted Ryan to describe posters as ‘sitting in their mother’s back room and firing off messages on a computer’. But he believes recent crowds at Sixways have shown that the fans are behind the team and insists the players are working as hard as they can.

“Anybody who was here for the Saracens game, I thought the place was jumping and Northampton was the same,” Ryan said.

“I think a lot of people can understand what we’re trying to do but, when we go below par, the danger of all the message boards is a small minority can fire questions that become a big thing.

“We had a below-par performance and we’re really disappointed about that but everyone tries to escalate it to be a major catastrophe all the time. We did have a blip and we were as disappointed as anybody but we’re not going to eat ourselves up because of it and we’re not going to allow everything to grow.”

He continued: “I’m a little bit weary of people telling me that the players don’t care or they don’t do this.

“It’s been a tough challenge to move this group in the right direction and I can assure people that everybody’s working hard to get as much out of themselves as they can.”