WORCESTER Warriors are in the scrap of their lives, according to director of rugby Dean Ryan, after an abysmal 20-13 defeat at fellow strugglers London Irish.

The Sixways club are only one point better off than Irish and Newcastle Falcons in a three-way battle at the foot of the Premiership table.

Warriors have lost their last 12 matches in all competitions, while Falcons and Irish have both started picking up crucial points.

After the manner of their hugely disappointing defeat against Irish, Warriors supporters will be staring in fear at the relegation trap door.

Worcester were not at the races in the first 40 minutes against an Irish side who had more hunger and desire, and played all the rugby in the opening half.

The only crumb of comfort for Warriors, who had Bryce Heem and Donncha O’Callaghan sent to the sin-bin, was they left Reading with a losing bonus point.

“This defeat was quite a big statement,” admitted Ryan.

“We are halfway through the season and we are in a fight.

“We can’t hide and think we might get away from them. This was our opportunity to put some space between ourselves and the others — and we missed it.

“We are in a fight and, if I am honest, the other two sides probably have the momentum at the moment.

“We probably had our momentum at the start of the season and we didn’t capitalise on that to get another win, which would have created some distance.

“We are one point ahead of the other two with six games to come at home and there is no talking about what we might do and what we might change.

“This is now firmly a fight with the other two.”

Ryan labelled Warriors’ first-half showing as “unacceptable” and laid the blame for Irish’s dominance at the door of late call-up Ryan Lamb.

Tom Heathcote withdrew due to a back spasm just before kick-off and the experienced Lamb was brought into the starting line-up after a spell on the sidelines with a hamstring problem.

Ryan said: “They were attacking straight down Ryan’s channel and he wasn’t stopping them. Therefore, everyone else was under pressure.

“That’s an area in which we tried to move people around — we had wingers and full-backs moving around — but we were all over the place.

“Suddenly, GJ (van Velze) couldn’t get around the corner and everyone was under pressure and it was just unacceptable to play like that at this level.

“I am not making any excuses for anybody. It was not acceptable to play for the first 40 minutes like we did.”

Worcester’s home clash against Bath on Saturday (3pm) now takes on even more significance for Ryan’s side after this latest setback.

“It’s just another game for us and one we have got to win,” said Ryan.

“I am not particularly bothered who it is. We are at home and we have got to start winning.

“If we don’t, we start writing the end of the season for everyone else.

“The only control we have got is to win games and we are not going to do that if we perform like we did here.”

Ryan added: “This was one of the bigger games we’ve had in recent weeks and we didn’t turn up.

“We are in the scrap of our lives. Going back to the start of the season, we knew we were in a scrap for our lives.

“I think we got a little bit comfortable after some early wins and lost the intensity. Perhaps we needed a sharp reminder that we are definitely in a battle.”