IT WAS “very hard” for players to look defence coach Omar Mouneimne in the eye after Worcester Warriors’ “unacceptable” showing at Newcastle Falcons, admits captain Donncha O’Callaghan.

After conceding 626 points from 22 Aviva Premiership games last term, Mouneimne was added to Warriors’ coaching staff to help them shore up their defence this season.

But Worcester leaked four tries in an error-strewn opening day display as Newcastle ran out 35-8 winners at Kingston Park last Friday.

“It was absolutely unacceptable and massively disappointing,” O’Callaghan said.

“It is not hard to put your finger on (why the result happened) as (our performance) was not acceptable across the board and we got a lesson.

“It is a ruthless league so if you don’t bring anything like we did (against Newcastle) that’s what happens.

“I just can’t live with a performance like that as we made errors and I thought our discipline wasn’t good enough.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Newcastle as they were brilliant and put us to the sword.

“They fully deserved their win but massively frustrated with how we performed in that game.

“It is very hard to look Omar in the eye now when he prepares you that well and we make individual or basic errors.”

Warriors were forced into a late change when centre Wynand Olivier picked up a hamstring injury in the warm up.

And they suffered a further setback on 27 minutes when Ben Te’o who replaced Olivier in the starting line-up sustained an arm injury.

But O’Callaghan believed it made no difference to the outcome, insisting Warriors’ players let themselves down.

“Obviously you want your quality players throughout and we need everyone,” the 38-year-old said.

“But there is no doubt that whoever steps in there can do a job, so I will not look to make excuses.

“It was unfortunate to lose Ben, but we weren’t good enough even if he was there.

“It’s a disappointing way to finish game when you feel you didn’t give a fair reflection of management, coaches and the non-23.

“We let them down and we let ourselves badly down.”

Warriors will now look to bounce back when they host Wasps on Sunday (3pm) and O’Callaghan said he and his teammates were desperate to repay the fans' support.

“It is great when we play at home as the supporters get behind us and we are used to the (artificial) pitch which is an advantage,” O’Callaghan added.

“But we need to give them something to shout about.

“There was nothing for any travelling fan to shout about last Friday and you can only apologise to them as you feel guilty for the amount of effort they have made to travel up the road and take time off work.

“For us to put out a performance like that was unacceptable.”