FIT-again Drew Hickey has called on his Worcester Warriors team-mates to evoke the spirit that saw them escape relegation from the Guinness Premiership on the final day of last season.

The Australian flanker grabbed a try in the 22-7 Sixways win over Saracens as resolute Worcester out-fought their opponents to dramatically retain their place at English rugby's top table.

Now Hickey, who made his first appearance since undergoing elbow surgery in the 29-7 defeat at Gloucester on Saturday, says Worcester need to recapture that never-say-die attitude to kick-start their current campaign.

The 29-year-old back-rower said: "Against Saracens in the last game of last season, we pressured them for 80 minutes, but against Gloucester we kept relieving the pressure we'd created by making poor mistakes.

"Good sides will crush you if you do that - as Gloucester did to us on Saturday and we did to Saracens last year.

"Our momentum kept us going through the last Saracens game and, as you see with all top-level sports, you need to keep that pressure up throughout."

Worcester host Saracens on Saturday and Hickey is keen to continue his recovery from injury.

He said: "Personally I felt not too bad but it was tough because it was my first game since half-way through the Saracens game at the end of last year.

"I'd have preferred it if we'd have been able to get on the front foot a bit more.

"Hopefully that was a base and I can only improve on what I did out there.

"There is a massive task with Saracens at home this weekend and we have to build on what we are doing defensively and work on our attack so we can get over the line more often.

"It was a patchy team performance against Gloucester - we were solid in the first-half and the defence worked well, but unfortunately we were up and down in the second-half.

"When you play teams like Gloucester, they continually exert pressure on you and we have to keep our levels up, but I think we dropped away at times during the match and they punished us with some pretty easy points."