BACKS coach Sam Vesty has challenged Worcester Warriors to be “really clinical” in attack against Newport Gwent Dragons in the European Challenge Cup.

The former Bath and Leicester Tigers star wants Warriors to show “more of a cutting edge” in Saturday’s showdown at Sixways (3pm).

Warriors have been blasted by angry supporters after failing to cross the whitewash despite dominating second-half possession in last Sunday’s 26-12 Aviva Premiership defeat to Wasps.

“We will play the way we want to play and hopefully we will have more of a cutting edge and I would like to see us being really clinical in our attack game,” said Vesty.

“You have got to be clinical in the Premiership, although this is going to be a younger group who will give everything they have got.

“I would like to see us get over the whitewash and cause Dragons a lot of problems.”

Full-back Chris Pennell and England centre Ben Te’o played in Warriors last fixture in the competition – a 25-24 defeat against Brive in October – but they won’t feature against Dragons.

Te’o is having a week’s break after being involved in England’s successful autumn series, where he made three appearances from the bench.

And Pennell, who would probably have been rested anyway, suffered a bruised heel against Wasps, although Vesty said the problem was “nothing too serious.”

Reflecting on Warriors’ defeat to Wasps, Vesty said: “We played some good rugby which created lots of opportunities but we didn’t get over the whitewash which was ultimately the failing of our team.

“We will play a lot worse than that and score a lot more tries.”

Teenage fly-half Jamie Shillcock kicked all of Warriors’ points against the Coventry-based club, although the hosts had several opportunities to score.

Number eight Alafoti Fa’osiliva had a try ruled out for a forward pass from Wynand Olivier, while Warriors failed to capitalise on a blistering first-half break from Tonga international Cooper Vuna.

Centre Jackson Willison looked set to cross on the right-hand touchline in the second half but couldn’t hold on to the try-scoring pass.

Vesty said: “The boys worked really hard to put us in the positions and did some excellent stuff but you could play ugly and win and the important thing is to get the win.

“We were happy with a lot of performance but we have to find a way of getting over the whitewash and that’s not an issue we usually have because we usually come away with a few tries.”