WORCESTER Warriors director of rugby Dean Ryan says supporters will need to be patient with his side in the early stages of their Aviva Premiership return.

Warriors were given a taste of the top flight in Saturday’s 52-30 defeat against Midlands rivals Wasps, who ran in seven tries, in a warm-up match at Sixways.

“If we think we are going to be flying into the Premiership then we are wrong,” admitted Ryan.

“The key is how much we learn each week.

“We are hugely excited about going into the Premiership and we will give everything we have got on October 16. But don’t judge us on that. Let’s see how quickly we can learn.”

Warriors will need to work on their set-piece ahead of their Premiership opener because their lineout and scrum failed to click against Wasps.

Fly-half Tom Heathcote impressed for Warriors, kicking 10 points, after making the starting line-up due to Ryan Lamb’s withdrawal due to illness.

Debutant Wynand Olivier was solid in the centre, while Cooper Vuna was not selected because he has gone away for “personal reasons”.

But Ryan said Vuna will be back for the start of the season.

“We are going to have some rough days in the Premiership because of the quality of the competition,” said Ryan.

“We have faced a sharp Wasps side who are probably going to be building towards the top-four this year.

“It gave us a real insight into how we can operate against such a team and, at half-time, we didn’t feel we were under massive pressure.

“In that first-half outside of their driving line-out try, we gave them the other two tries so that’s pretty easy problems to solve.

Ryan added: “We have got to get more confident at dealing with the issues.”

Worcester have just two friendlies before their eagerly-awaited Premiership opener against Northampton Saints.

They have a development fixture at Saracens next Saturday and, curiously, a behind-closed-doors friendly against Northampton at Franklin’s Gardens just seven days before the clubs meet at Sixways.

“The Saracens game is a development fixtures — it will be a lot of youngsters and under 23s,” revealed Ryan.

Ryan added: “We are due to play Northampton as a pre-season fixture which was given to us when we came out of the Championship.

“We have Northampton on the Friday but I believe it’s behind closed doors due to stadium safety.

“When you come out of the Championship you get given your pre-season fixtures because you don’t get promoted until the end of May.

“The chances of organising other fixtures around those matches are pretty slim because everyone else has already organised their friendlies.”