PUMPED-UP centre Ryan Mills has rubbished the underdogs tag as Worcester Warriors bid to secure another memorable victory at Leicester Tigers tomorrow (3pm).

Winless Warriors prop up the Gallagher Premiership after three straight defeats and now face daunting trips to Leicester and Exeter Chiefs.

But Worcester sent shockwaves through the league when they defeated both sides away from home last season and Mills has backed his team to upset the odds again.

“We are spoken about in the media as underdogs but if I am honest players don’t listen to any of that,” said the 26-year-old.

“We don’t see ourselves as underdogs and don’t go into a game ever thinking ‘no one thinks we are going to win so we can just throw caution to the wind’.

“We always back ourselves no matter who we are playing.

“This league has shown thousands of times that anyone can beat anyone on their day, home or away.

“I don’t think this game (at Leicester) takes pressure off us because we expect a huge amount from ourselves.”

Warriors claimed their first victory at Welford Road in November last year with a 31-27 triumph over Leicester before beating Exeter 6-5 at Sandy Park in February.

“They are not two games we are taking lightly,” Mills said.

“But we are not going there with a shot to nothing. We are going there to win.

“It is something that we believe we can do and are looking to do.

“It would be lovely to get off the mark with a win up at Leicester.”

Mills has also urged his team-mates to not be intimidated by Tigers’ vocal fans at Leicester’s 25,849-capacity ground.

“As a rugby player that’s the sort of crowd you want to play in front of,” Mills said.

“We have got to make sure that we use the atmosphere to our advantage and let that pump us up even more rather than being afraid of it and let it intimidate us.

“People may think it is a hostile crowd and it is a tough place to go but as a player you hear noise, you don’t hear who they are cheering for.”

Matt O’Connor was axed as Leicester head coach after crashing to a 40-6 defeat at Exeter on the opening day of the season.

But Mills insisted the change of management has had a “huge impact” on Tigers, now led by ex-Ireland international Geordan Murphy.

Leicester beat Newcastle Falcons 49-33 before running Wasps close with 14 men in a 41-35 defeat at the Ricoh Arena last Sunday.

“They look like they have got a great group of lads who want to work for each other and have got a great energy,” Mills added.

“They are playing from a bit deeper than they usually do and playing with ball in hand a bit more.

“Fordy (George Ford) is running their attack extremely well and is looking like a real threat and Manu (Tuilagi) is back to near his good form.

“It is going to be a huge challenge but it is something we are expecting so we just need to make sure we front up.”