EXPERIENCED full-back Chris Pennell insists Worcester Warriors players must look at themselves “in the mirror” after their first-half horror show at Wasps.

The 28-year-old believes Warriors’ players let down director of rugby Dean Ryan with their 54-35 defeat against high-flying Wasps at Sixways.

Ryan labelled Warriors’ first-half showing as “unacceptable” as they conceded five tries in a 33-15 deficit at the break.

And Pennell admits Warriors have a lot of work to do before travelling to Leicester Tigers in their penultimate Aviva Premiership fixture on April 30 (3pm).

It will be another tough test for Warriors because the Welford Road side still need a win to guarantee a spot in the end-of-season play-offs.

“We were hesitant in the first half against Wasps and they picked us off very well as the top teams do,” said Pennell.

“It was massively disappointing. We were very disappointed with our first-half in particular. Come the second half the game was pretty much gone.

“We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out why we came out and played the way we did in the first half.

“Why were we as hesitant as we were?

“The final scoreline shows the type of game it was.

"I imagine from a neutral’s perspective it was pretty good to watch but ultimately it’s not good enough for us to be shipping 50 points again.”

Warriors lost 50-12 in their previous outing at Exeter Chiefs and have now conceded 104 points in their last two matches.

Pennell believes Warriors must get the confidence back in their defence.

“We have an awful lot of things we need to work on,” said Pennell.

“We have got two of the top teams coming up in Leicester and Saracens.

“We have to get our confidence back in our defence.

“We showed some good stuff in attack so we can take a bit of confidence in that.

“But we have to hang our hat on our defence.

“I think we let down Dean Ryan and the coaches because we were given fairy simple messages to follow.

“It’s up to us to turn up and look to smash people because the coaches can’t do that for us.

“Wasps didn’t do anything we didn’t expect.

“They were extremely clinical but we were disappointed because we sat off them and didn’t impose ourselves.”

Warriors are already safe from relegation fears but Ryan is not allowing his side to let their season fade away.

He has urged his troops to lay down a marker in their remaining matches by toppling one of the best teams in Europe.

“We have got just two opportunities left this season to show what we’re about,” said Pennell.

“We were still a bit bruised from the Exeter result and we need to learn to move and we have to do that quickly.

“We will be coming up against two of the top sides so we have to go back to what we’ve been good at for most of the season which is getting off the line and hitting people.

“Leicester and Saracens are two good teams who attack well and we need to cause issues and stop them.”

He added: “We are in a fairly unique position for us, at this stage of the season, because we’re not scrapping it out. What happens between now and the end of the season is massively important for next year.

“Wasps will come to Sixways next year full of confidence after the way we played. We can’t afford to give Leicester and Saracens the same feeling towards us.”