Grove - No hiding place

Alex Grove: Insists Worcester's players are driving each other on in search of first Premiership win

Scotland international Alex Grove admits Worcester's players have been brutally honest with themselves after a frustrating start to the Aviva Premiership season.

The Warriors head to unbeaten Northampton on Saturday, having lost to Bath and Leicester before drawing with Gloucester.

They were denied victory in the Bath and Gloucester games by respective opposition goalkickers Olly Barkley and Freddie Burns booting a penalty and conversion in the dying seconds.

But Worcester centre Grove says sympathy is not what the Warriors squad are looking for.

"Players have been brutal with each other when we are reviewing games and there's no hiding place for anyone," he said. "That is the only way we are going to move forward.

"You can't pass the buck. Players are taking ownership for their mistakes and that is important.

"It is not about waiting for luck. It's about driving each other day in, day out in training. If you work hard in training you will get the rewards at the weekend.

"It's only a matter of time before we are the ones winning matches with the last kick of the game.

"The four points are what we want, not two for drawing or a bonus point for losing. We've got to go a step further and close these games out."

Young calls for improvement

Worcester will meet a Northampton team without England full-back Ben Foden, whose ankle ligament injury suffered against Bath last Friday is set to mean a lengthy lay-off.

Wasps, meanwhile, visit Gloucester on Saturday on the back of an opening victory against struggling London Irish that followed losing bonus points collected against Harlequins and Bath.

But rugby director David Young said: "We have had three games where we haven't played for the full 80 minutes.

"If we can play for 80 minutes at the level that we did in the second half (against Irish) or for what we did for 55 or 60 minutes at Twickenham (against Quins), we are going to be a hard team to beat.

"I think we have shown glimpses of how good we can be, and if we can play for 80 minutes I think it is going to take a good team to beat us. That is the challenge for us."