BOSS Gary Gold insists it is “critical” Worcester Warriors land their kicks at goal against a “formidable” Northampton Saints side at Sixways tomorrow (1pm).

Warriors squandered 13 points from the tee in their last Aviva Premiership outing as Harlequins claimed a 41-35 victory.

Despite playing a key role in the six-try display at The Stoop, Jono Lance missed four conversions and a long-range penalty while Tom Heathcote went awry before dispatching one late on.

There was also frustration for Sam Olver last Sunday as the fly-half only converted two of the six tries in Worcester’s 45-37 loss at Quins in the Anglo-Welsh Cup.

But Gold is “confident” Warriors will hit the target against Saints as they bid to kickstart their season after seven straight league defeats.

“We need to be converting 80 per cent of our kicks at goal,” Gold said. “The best teams in the world do that.

“In the Premiership game against Quins we were 18-10 up and had missed a penalty at goal and a conversion at that stage.

“Even if we had kicked just one of those we would have been 20-10 up and it would have been a completely different ball game.

“It is critical for us and we do need our goal-kickers to be on song. But it is an area we are working hard at and I have confidence in the guys that they will get it right.”

After their opening-day thrashing at Saracens, Northampton chalked up four league wins on the bounce in September.

But back-to-back defeats to Gloucester and Wasps last month have seen Jim Mallinder’s men slip to sixth position.

Saints will be without hooker Dylan Hartley and lock Courtney Lawes on international duty with England.

But Gold does not believe the duo’s absence at Sixways will have any bearing on the game.

“I don’t think Northampton have been decimated as a club,” Gold said. “They have got great strength in depth.

“Jim has been there for a long time and built up such a solid squad.

“They are losing Dylan and Courtney but when you see the quality of the players they are replacing them with I don’t think they will even bat an eyelid.

“They have produced some fantastic performances, none more so than their display against Leicester, so they are a very formidable team and it’s going to be a very tough contest for us.”

But Warriors’ director of rugby has been encouraged by his side’s performances while he has been away in South Africa and believes they will test Northampton.

“We realise the magnitude of the task that lies ahead of us and how tough the opponents we have got are in the next three Premiership games,” Gold added.

“But we are feeling confident as we believe we have got a better balance to our game than we did at the beginning of the season so hopefully that’ll pay dividends this weekend.”