DESPITE the impressive performance against Leicester, Dean Ryan insists the result was just another defeat for his side and further improvements need to be made.

However, the Sixways chief was heartened by the fighting spirit and commitment of his players in the 23-22 defeat and feels they can draw inspiration from the showing for the remainder of their Aviva Premiership relegation battle.

“It was our best display of how hard we are going to fight to stay in this league,” admitted Ryan. “At times, we haven’t been able to represent ourselves properly and we’ve had mixed messages about what we want.

“It’s just one point, though, so we’re not going to dwell on it – we know the challenge we are facing and we won’t spend days celebrating good performances when we lose.

“We have another opportunity to pick up points this weekend and we’ll see if we can close the gap again.

“We haven’t got time to feel sorry for ourselves. We enjoyed representing the club in the right way against Leicester, but we can’t worry about what did and didn’t happen – we have to front up and get ready for this weekend’s game.

“We are learning how to be a team and that is the crux of the issue. Over the years, people have been flying in and out of this club and we’ve lost all identity as a team.

“We are trying to build a team that cares and understands what it’s like to win. We’re not hiding from the fact we sometimes fall short in that, it’s not a perfect world, but if you’re a strong team, you win games like Leicester did on Friday. It was a huge effort and performance, but now we have to move on and see if we can replicate it.

“We haven’t done that week in, week out and we haven’t got a group as deep on quality as we would like.

“We will really try to target every Premiership game and we will try to match the level of intensity we showed on Friday.

“It happens, but it is about how you behave afterwards and I thought we were huge and didn’t let it get to us.

“We were back in competition with them by half-time and it was tough in the second-half, so fair play to the forwards for fronting up. That allowed Paul to kick and get us in the right areas of the field.”

There was a noticeable step up in performance from Warriors against Leicester, with the likes of Mike Williams, James Percival and Gus Creevy to the fore.

Ryan added: “I’ve been impressed with Mike – it doesn’t matter where he is playing. He’d be pushing Percy for a place in the second row and Percy is aware he has to be at the top of his game. Both of them were outstanding against Leicester.

“It’s been a big step up for Mike, but he’s really taken to it and he really knows how to put it around. I don’t mind if he pushes Percy to greater heights and I don’t mind if he plays like that at six. It’s good for the senior players to have a youngster chewing their backsides.

“Gus is a brute of a man, he gives us the physical presence we haven’t had and he carries the ball well – we’re delighted to have him.”