LEE Blackett insists Wasps must be “defensively” sound when they make the trip to Worcester Warriors in the Gallagher Premiership this weekend.
Wasps were beaten 33-35 in a Friday night thriller against Gloucester last time out – their fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions.
And Blackett slammed his side’s first-half display at the Coventry Building Society Arena that saw Wasps concede 23 points.
Head Coach Blackett knows his team will have to improve their defence to keep out a Worcester side who scored 68 points in their last home outing.
Blackett said: “They’re dangerous – they’ve got some good individuals – they’ve proven they can score points.
“Defensively we’re going to have to be on our guard and we just can’t make as many errors on the ball.
“Worcester had a rough couple of weeks but since then they had a try-bonus win against Sale – a comfortable win.
“They put 60 odd points past Bristol in their last home game in the Cup – they’re slowly building a bit of confidence.”
Wasps scored five tries in their defeat to Gloucester after two late scores from Jacob Umaga almost sparked an extraordinary comeback.
Thomas Young, Gabriel Oghre and Alfie Barbeary also touched down for the home side who secured two bonus points from the defeat.
And whilst defeat leaves Wasps ninth in the Premiership table – Blackett was pleased by his side’s ability to score points in the opposition 22.
Blackett added: “We came away with two points having played pretty poorly – we’ve played a lot better this year and come away with less points.
“We were off defensively – we showed old habits I’d seen in us – we sat off far too much, we didn’t go after collisions.
“There’s been a lot of improvements in our defence – it was a slight backwards step to where we’re going.
“We’ve worked so hard on our maul – we were pretty ruthless when we got down to their 22 – the impact from the bench was a big positive.”
Wasps travel to Worcester on Saturday, December 4 with kick-off at 3pm at Sixways Stadium.
