WE are up against one of the best teams in Europe when we go to Welford Road to play Leicester Tigers in the Aviva Premiership on Friday night and that is a great challenge.

On the back of Friday’s 19-9 win over Newcastle Falcons at Sixways, our outlook for the end of the season has changed.

It is all about how well we can finish the campaign and we go to Welford Road as a different side to the ones that have lost there in years gone by.

We will have to match their physicality and it will be a tough test, but we can get something out of it if the bounce of the ball goes our way.

It would be nice to be the first Worcester Warriors side to go there and win, but we will approach the match just like we do for any other.

Our game with Newcastle at Sixways on Friday night was never going to be a thriller given the nature of what it represented to both sides.

If the Falcons had won, it would have dragged us down toward the relegation battle, but the win more or less confirms we will be playing in the Premiership next season.

Although we hadn’t been thinking about relegation, it was still good to get the issue out of the way and it was a tentative game for both teams.

When we started to play in the second-half, we looked the better side and threatened more than they did, but it certainly wasn’t a classic and won’t go down in history as the most entertaining of games. Newcastle do tend to play kicking tactics when they are away from home, so that was to be expected.

As a back-three player especially, you want to get your hands on the ball and go forward, but we were fielding kicks for a most of the game. There weren’t a great deal of holes to counter-attack, so it was not the most exciting match to play in.

But they started to appear later in the game and Newcastle tend to concede most of their points late on, so we had to stick to the task and take the shackles off towards the end.

That worked and we looked much more dangerous when we kept the ball in hand. We are not a one dimensional team and we can play a variety of different styles.

It was really disappointing to see Jake Abbott limp off and we hope it is nothing too serious, but it was great to have Kai Horstmann back involved. I thought he did really well and it didn’t look like he had been out since September.

We know his class and his qualities, especially around the club during the week with his leadership and how he pulls everyone along with him.

Blair Cowan is another one of those Cornish Pirates guys and is very talented with the ball in hand and getting us going forward, but he also has a real defensive edge, just like Sam Betty.