WARRIORS coach Billy McGinty has backed Joe Carlisle to bounce back from his intercept-pass nightmare against Montpellier and prove he is the real deal.

The young fly-half climbed off the bench in the second-half of the Amlin Challenge Cup clash at Sixways and immediately handed a seven-pointer, and the game, to the French Top 14 strugglers.

Worcester backs and defence coach McGinty revealed the academy product was devastated by his costly gaffe after the game, but believes he has the strength of character to learn from it.

The former Wigan rugby league star, who represented Great Britain four times, said: “We weren’t necessarily angry with Joe’s decision to throw that pass — everyone gives away interception passes and makes mistakes — we just look at it as a bit of a learning curve for him.

“It is something he has to learn from. He hasn’t had a lot of game-time this year, so when he came on he was trying to win the match. You don’t deliberately make mistakes.

“Also, when I look at the game as a whole, it shouldn’t have gone down to just one score anyway. That’s the way I see it. It was unfortunate for Joey and he was very disappointed by it.

“It is part of becoming a professional rugby player — you make mistakes and you have to move on — you can’t dwell on them and take them into the following week because it will just affect your game. He’ll learn from it and hopefully he will come out stronger.”

Meanwhile, there was some good news on the injury front with McGinty announcing that he expects wing Marcel Garvey (fractured hand) and prop Olivier Sourgens (knee) to be fit for the Guinness Premiership visit of Harlequins on October 24.

McGinty added: “Marcel’s injury is not as bad as we first thought, so we are hoping it will take just a week.

“Olivier shouldn’t be too much longer and it will be great to have one of the props back fit.”