FRUSTRATED prop Ethan Waller has urged his teammates to get in the faces of Brive’s players as Worcester Warriors bid to rattle their “extremely dangerous” French opponents today (3pm).

Worcester and Brive will go head-to-head in the European Challenge Cup opener at Sixways with both teams sitting bottom of their respective leagues.

Waller believes a victory for Warriors could send their season “sky rocketing” after suffering six straight defeats in the Aviva Premiership.

But the 25-year-old is wary of the threats Brive pose with ball in hand despite winning just one of their first seven Top 14 fixtures.

“We have done a lot of analysis on them this week and we know they are extremely dangerous when they want to be and that’s something we have got to be mindful of,” Waller said.

“Like any French team their pack is going to be massively strong.

“They like the players to be big over there so it is going to be a forward battle.

“If they can assert that dominance and get that bit of a momentum then they are dangerous with their offloading game.

“But if they can’t get any front foot ball that can sometimes work against them.

“It will be a big battle, so we are going to have to get in their faces and hopefully force some errors.”

Waller joined Warriors from Northampton Saints this summer, but has been forced to bide his time on the bench as Ryan Bower has kept hold of the loosehead spot.

The Kettering-born front rower, who will make his first start of the season, said he shared supporters’ frustration and was determined to “repay” their faith with a long-awaited win.

“We are lucky that our first game in the competition is at home because when Sixways is packed out the atmosphere is unreal - there is nowhere else like it,” Waller said.

“It is just a matter of two or three key moments in games where we have switched off or we have not paid the attention that we should have done.

“So we share the frustration of the fans and we owe them a massive performance this weekend to get our season really sky rocketing from there.

“We need a win - there is no two ways about it.

“Every single week we are battering seven shades out of each other and it’s frustrating on the weekend when we don’t come away with the result.

“At some point we have got to make sure that everything gels and we are no longer working for the sake of working.

“The performance against Bath was good, but there were a few bits of detail that let us down, so this week it is about minimising those errors.

“Hopefully we can win these next couple of games (against Brive and Connacht next Saturday) and build momentum so we can take that form back into the Premiership.”