PAT SANDERSON COLUMN

I ABSOLUTELY hate not being able to play rugby!

It really does my head in sitting on the sidelines, especially for really close games like the one last weekend.

It's not the first injury I've had and you would think I would be used to it by now but you just want to be out there.

Having said that, the back is good and getting better all the time. I'm thinking about going for a run this week, which might come as a bit of a shock to the system.

Hopefully, I'll be on water duty on Saturday because I don't like watching from the stands.

I would like to be fit for the Montpellier game. My priority now is getting fit and playing for Worcester.

When I'm not playing I don't have anything to do with team talks before the game. I talk to the lads during the week but on match-days it's very much down to the guys that are out there.

It's hard to feel part of it when you're not playing and it's hard to do the team talk when you're not going through the same thing as the rest of the guys. Reg (Tony Windo) is very good at handling that sort of thing anyway.

Northampton on Saturday was hugely disappointing for us. I think we could have won any one of the last three games and it was the same at the weekend.

We defended well and battled hard and we could easily have won. But we've got to be realistic. Most of the games we play in are very close and you are going to have defeats. It's the manner in which you respond that matters.

We were unlucky with the decision on Shane's pass. On balance it looked forward but how many times have you seen those given? But we've got no real complaints. Northampton would have been pretty aggrieved if they had lost.

It happens in the season that there are games you win which you shouldn't and games you lose which you shouldn't. We've been good up until recently at winning those close games and we've got to re-discover that skill.

I don't think we controlled the game as we would have liked. Every team is a good team in this league and it's just a matter of us making small improvements.

Every time we have played Northampton it has been a close game and a ferocious contest. When you look at some of the players they have got, it was always going to be a big battle.

We have had injuries in the forwards but every team has injuries and I don't think that is really a factor.

Warriors have a two-week break from the Premiership now and these two European games are very important for us because they can get us winning again.

We entertain Catania on Saturday who have had some pretty good results recently. They ran us close last time and beat Montpellier.

I know we will be putting a strong team out and we need to focus now on a winning run.