GREG Rawlinson is leading the Worcester Warriors tight five to Newcastle with a point to prove and a burning desire to succeed.

By his own admission, the giant All Black and his Warriors forward colleagues had a bad day at the office in the 26-22 Sixways defeat to Harlequins last weekend, but he is determined to make amends in Sunday's showdown.

The South Africa-born lock, who is in the final year of his Worcester contract, said: “Newcastle have got a really physical bunch of forwards, so we’ll have our work cut out for us, especially given the way our pack didn’t really front up last weekend against Harlequins — it is certainly going to be a tough game on Sunday.

“(Director of rugby) Mike (Ruddock) said he was disappointed with the pack last weekend — it was one of those games where we really needed to front up and we didn’t.

“A few things didn’t go our way early on in the game and it seemed to go a bit quiet after that.

“We’ve spoken about how we need to be pro-active this week and make sure that we are the aggressors rather than waiting for the opposition to set the tone.

“All of us in the pack are really fired up for the Newcastle game — after a disappointment like last weekend, we feel like we’ve really got to pull something out of the hat.

“The fans will see a lot of aggression out there from us.

“The main problems against Harlequins were that we were going backwards in the scrum and we dropped quiet a few line-outs, which got us off on a bad note. We need to get those things right early in the game on Sunday and that will settle us down, get us motivated and firing on all cylinders.

“It is so important to have someone like prop Tevita Taumoepeau back for this match because he is very consistent and once you start going backwards in the scrum, you’ve got all sorts of problems.”

Comments emanating from Kingston Park this week of the Falcons looking to ‘break the spirit’ of the Warriors’ forwards have added an extra edge to the game, but Rawlinson insists Worcester will be concentrating on their own game and not worrying what their opponents have to say.

He added: “I thought both teams played really well in the drawn game at Newcastle last season, but I also thought we should have won it.

“I suppose they have gained a bit of confidence from their win last week at Bath, so they will be tough to beat at their place. However, I am confident that if we turn ourselves around and play the way we should be playing, we’ll come away with the win.

“We are not worried about what they are saying really. We are disappointed about last week and that is something we have to get right for ourselves. Whatever they say they are going to do will not change our approach to the game.”