DEAN Ryan could not hide the pain caused by Warriors’ heartbreaking late defeat to Wasps, but insists his players will climb up off the canvas and give their all at Newcastle next weekend.

The last-gasp loss at Sixways was a real body blow for an already struggling Warriors side and Ryan admitted everyone at the club was hurting.

However, they are not mathematically relegated yet and will keep fighting tooth and nail for as long as they can.

Director of rugby Ryan said: “We can’t hide from that, it was painful. Sport doesn’t necessarily give you everything you think you deserve – that’s the nature of it.

“Sometimes you just have to go and get behind closed doors and put an arm around each other because that hurt.

“We’ll be back in today and getting ready to go again. I won’t let us sit around and feel sorry for ourselves.

“I’ll let us get a bit angry and we spent the weekend a bit tied up by the defeat, but now we have to come back and we still think we have a chance.

“We represented ourselves well against Wasps. We have a pretty tight group here and are starting to get things right moving forward, we just sometimes don’t get the rosy bits at the end of games at the moment and it hurt badly on Friday.

“The atmosphere in the dressing-room after the game was not great and we are hurting, but we won’t allow ourselves to be patronised. I refuse to let this group wallow around in self-pity. We can’t put distances between ourselves and the sides we are playing, therefore we are always vulnerable to what happened on Friday.”

Despite his side having failed to serve up a Premiership win all season, Ryan insists he feels immense pride in his players and the way they have conducted themselves during a tough campaign.

He explained: “We have opportunities to control games, but make mistakes, and that is what happens and it is why we are where we are.

“We always put our bodies on the line, but I know people are patting us on the back, feeling sorry for us and saying how dark it must be at the moment.

“Despite that, this group of players is improving. Sometimes the only thing you get out of a sporting occasion like Friday’s game is knowing you have been out there with a group of people you really respect.

“There are people here that I have worked with over the last six or seven months that I have the utmost respect for. To be operating like that in these circumstances is fantastic and sometimes that is the only thing you get.

“We’re pretty tight as a group – we always have been. Yes, there are some changes around the edge with people moving on, but the group that go out there each week really get what we’re about.

“Whether we get the reward for that this season, I don’t know, but it will define the future, which is exactly what I want it to do. We have to fight like mad this weekend against another group who are also fighting like mad. I just hope we can pick up a win this season because we deserve it.”