Worcester Warriors head coach Jonathan Thomas insists it is up to the players to turn the tide of their current losing run after their 13-17 loss to Wasps on Sunday.

Two first-half scores from James Gaskell and Tom Willis put the visitors 14-3 up at half-time despite Worcester taking the lead from the tee after just eleven minutes from Jamie Shillcock.

“I said to the boys at half-time, do we want to be victims or fighters?” he said.

“But I was proud of the effort in the second-half and they fought back well but the reality is we shouldn’t have put ourselves into that position and two tries killed us in that opening half.

“Winning is a habit but losing is too, we did everything to win that game, possession, territory but we didn’t take our chances. We have to break the habit of losing because we should have won that game.”

Warriors produced a spirited comeback in the final quarter having been 17-3 with 21 minutes to play but ultimately, the terrible opening forty minutes proved decisive in the end result.

“Of course it’s frustrating to lose but it’s not about me, it’s about them.” said Thomas.

“I believe in them but they have to believe in themselves and the ability they have because we cannot keep losing games like that.”

“There have now been too many games where we should have won, but it will turn but it’s down to the players to believes themselves and take these chances.”

Worcester made six changes for the game, with Shillcock stepping in at fly-half after injuries to first and second choice number 10s, Duncan Weir and Billy Searle.

Warriors are a young squad but missing key players is proving difficult to deal with said Thomas.

“There were some huge learnings and experience for some of those guys but the big thing is we have some of our x factor players in Melani and Ollie out and any team will miss that opportunity,” he added.

“But we have to be brutally honest with ourselves and say we should have won that game today but it will come.”

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