AFTER being cited for an alleged eye-gouging incident in our home game with Wasps, I had to attend the hearing this week.

I respect the process that has to be followed and it is important that the RFU take these measures to keep the game clean. However, I was pleased the panel came to the right conclusion and dismissed the citing.

Mike Ruddock and I went to the hearing and we watched the video of the incident and we gave our verdict of what had happened and all the evidence was examined.

The panel dismissed the citing and we can move on and look forward to the Saracens game on Saturday.

Saracens are as good a side as Gloucester - they have as much talent and as many game-breakers. We will have to show the same level of defensive intensity that we had at Gloucester, while making sure we match them in attack too.

The defeat at Kingsholm was really frustrating. We did not get it quite right at the breakdown for whatever reason, but we know how we can improve.

Gloucester struggled to br-eak us down for most of the game - they just had the rub of the green with two of their tries.

It was one of those days when the ball just didn't bounce for us and that was summed up when Ryan Powell nearly scored but put the ball down on someone's foot and knocked-on - that was seven points that went begging.

It was the same with James Simpson-Daniel's try for Glou-cester because it came from a stray pass by Thinus Delport deep in their half and he scored a breakaway try. If we'd managed to avoid that, the game could have been very different.

We were still well in the game at that point and if Ryan had had a bit more luck and been able to score - a win for us would have been likely.

Kingsholm is not an easy place to go, but even though we lost, I didn't see anything to worry about as we were very competitive.

It was just not our day as they had the bounce of the ball. That was certainly the case with Mike Tindall's try right at the end of the game. Marcel Garvey read the situation well and dropped deep to cover the kick, but was really unlucky with the way the ball bounced back over him.

We will keep working at the things we did wrong.

Everything is starting to come together now and we are progressing towards playing a more complete brand of rugby.

The Premiership is moving forward and we will say many of the same things about a lot of the teams we play. All of the teams are good sides and we will always have to defend solidly and attack well if we are going to win games.

It was great to have Chris Horsman back at Sixways this week. A few of our other guys who have also been at the World Cup will be back soon, which will be a boost for our squad.