RICHARD de Carpentier has challenged Worcester Warriors to build on their battling draw in France and improve as the season goes on.

The former Leic-ester Tigers back-rower has been sidelined for much of this season, but made his comeback in the ‘A’ League, before stepping up his progress with 80 minutes in the 9-9 Amlin Challenge Cup (ACC) draw at Oyonnax.

De Carpentier feels there were positive signs in the draw away to a side that have already beaten Clermont, Toulon and Castres on home soil in the Top 14 this term.

The 23-year-old, who is delighted to be back playing again, is hoping to be involved again today when Sale Sharks come to Sixways for round two of the ACC.

He said: “It feels like I’ve been out for a long time, so it was good to be back involved, especially in a first-team capacity. I’ve been involved in the ‘A’ League, but nothing feels as good as playing first-team rugby.

“I think the team went well, we came together. We’ve been waiting for a performance and hopefully we can kick on from that performance out in France – where we got a couple of points – and move on. Going over to France in those poor conditions against big forwards, the physicality was up there. I was feeling it a bit on Sunday, but I’ve recovered and hope to be back in today against Sale.”

He added: “It was a good team performance in France and it’s easy to play well in a good team performance. Hopefully, the front five can do a job again and make the back row look good and the backs even better.

“Sale at home is always a big game, especially as I come from up north, so to play against any Sale team will be good.

“We can use the fact that we’ve got them five times this season to our advantage. I know they’ve got a lot of different line-out calls and a lot of variations, so hopefully we can read into that and get a read on it.

“Sale proved their strength with their two penalty tries against a strong Biarritz team, but fingers crossed we can get a good result at Sixways.

“I’m looking to break into the team and I want to keep my spot for longer. I want to push on for our game with Exeter the week after as well.”