BACK-row forward Carl Kirwan has vowed to silence Worcester Warriors’ doubters with a tough-tackling display tomorrow against Aviva Premiership rivals Newcastle Falcons (3pm).

Falcons head coach John Wells has declared Newcastle will target Warriors’ defensive deficiencies in the crucial showdown at Sixways.

Wells claims Warriors have “some guys” who “are probably not the best defenders”.

Durham-born Kirwan, pictured, topped the tackle statistics for the Premiership last weekend and intends to build on his 19 hits from the pulsating 34-34 draw against Sale Sharks.

“It has always been a thing of mine to try to be the top tackler in the team,” said the hard-working 25-year-old flanker, who started his career in Falcons’ academy.

“I believe if I achieve the feat of being the best tackler, then I have worked hard as an open-side.

“But it’s always tough to be the top tackler when you’re in a team with people like Phil Dowson, who always work so hard.

“To finish top of the tackle stats last week was good but I would be more happy if we had a better defensive structure and stopped giving away penalties, which take us back into our corner.

“We paid for a bit of over-eagerness and sometimes we have to be sensible and leave the breakdown.

“We have looked at Falcons. They are pretty heavy at the breakdown and don’t mind a contest there.

“It could be interesting with people like Val Rapava Ruskin going well at the breakdown.”

Warriors achieved back-to-back wins against Falcons last term but the north-east side have started the season well with wins against Sale Sharks and Gloucester.

Falcons’ 18-13 victory at Gloucester last Saturday was their first top-tier away success in almost two years.

Wells said: “We’re going to have to score tries because this Worcester team can score against anyone.

“They’ve got a starting attack from the set-piece as good as any in the league and they’ve got outside backs who can score tries for fun.

“We’ve got to make sure that, what ball they do get, they don’t get any momentum as a result.

“They do have some guys that are not necessarily bad tacklers but are probably not the best defenders and we’ve got to try to exploit that.”

Kirwan suffered concussion at the start of the season after a clash of heads with team-mate Alafoti Faosiliva in Warriors’ warm-up defeat in Munster.

After regaining his fitness, the flanker has seized his starting chance and can’t wait to face Newcastle.

“I always love being involved against Newcastle and enjoyed my time in their academy set-up but unfortunately I didn’t push on,” said Kirwan.

But he suffered a personal blow against Newcastle last March when dropped by then-director of rugby Dean Ryan for their clash with Falcons at Kingston Park, which Warriors won 15-14.

“I felt like I had been going pretty well but Dean made a tactical decision not to play me,” recalled Kirwan.

“I just went with it and it paid off for Dean and I can’t have any problems with it because we won the match.”

Kirwan, a former London Welsh skipper, believes he now feels comfortable in Warriors’ structures and enjoys being part of head coach Carl Hogg’s squad.

“I really enjoy his style of coaching,” said Kirwan.

“It’s a bit more laid-back and more of a friendly environment to be in, so I really enjoy it.

“As a team, we just need to start getting some results to show Hoggy that as well.”