SATURDAY’S derby match against Gloucester at Sixways is a huge game for everyone at Worcester Warriors.

Following defeats to Bath and Leicester Tigers, we really need to get our Aviva Premiership campaign off to winning ways.

We know what we are capable of as players and the things we do in training are working. It’s going to be a great game and I am expecting a really noisy crowd at Sixways to get behind us.

But nothing changes in the way we will approach it, we’ll just carry on with what we are doing. We want to win our home games because that’s how you get up the table.

The last time we played at Sixways we lost 24-23 to Bath and it was really disappointing. How we lost that game at the end still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

It’s important for us to remember how we felt after that game and take that into this weekend. We will be looking to right that wrong and I am really looking forward to it.

Although we lost 34-26 at Leicester last Saturday, there were plenty of positives to take from the match.

In particular, the way the team reacted to going behind early on. They scored two breakaway tries in the first few minutes and a lot of teams would have folded at that point, especially on a warm day with a home crowd behind the Tigers.

We managed to keep ourselves in the game and were unfortunate not to get a bonus point. Another big positive for me was how we approached the game in the build-up during the week. We spoke about concentrating on ourselves and what we were going to do rather than focusing on them.

We also talked about how some teams are already 15 points down just travelling to the game on the coach because Welford Road is a hostile place to play.

Yet, we held them in the forwards and scrummaged well so there’s a lot to be positive about.

At times, we looked dangerous and a couple of chances to score went begging when the extra pass went astray. We’ll learn from this and move on quickly to this weekend’s match. It is always disappointing after a defeat, especially on a Monday morning, but now the focus has switched to Gloucester and looking at how they play.

However, one area we can’t afford to start making a habit out of is yellow cards. So far this season we have had three — one for myself against Bath and then Chris Pennell and Shaun Perry against Leicester.

My yellow card was the result of foul play from both parties and the two at Welford Road were silly penalties and you can’t afford to be playing with 14 men for 20 minutes against sides like Leicester.

It’s not a trend, you have to be on the edge in games but you can’t keep stepping over it and pick up yellow cards.