SOUTH African centre Wynand Olivier felt “comfortable” in his first Worcester Warriors’ outing alongside new midfield partner Ben Te’o.

Olivier had only trained with the England hopeful in the week leading up to Worcester’s Aviva Premiership opener with Saracens because Te’o had been struggling with an injury.

The 33-year-old thought the duo did OK defensively but admitted there was “a lot to work on” after Warriors’ 35-3 defeat against the reigning Premiership and European champions at Twickenham.

“Ben has shown before in his career he can make the step-up in the big games and I think he did well under the circumstances,” said Olivier, who made 19 Premiership appearances last term and scored three tries.

“We didn’t get a lot of opportunities to attack but we felt comfortable in defence so there’s a lot to work on.

“Last week was the first time we had trained together because Ben had been injured straight after the Jersey game but it was quite comfortable.

“He brought his strength and slotted in well defensively. It was just in attack we didn’t have a lot of opportunities but hopefully we will have more over the rest of the season.”

Te’o, who toured with Eddie Jones’ England squad to Australia in the summer, created Warriors’ best try-scoring opportunity against the champions.

The former Leinster star picked up a loose ball and broke through the midfield only to be forced wide by Alex Goode, the last line of Sarries’ defence.

Warriors stifled and frustrated Sarries in the first half and trailed only 6-3 but the star-studded London club blew away Carl Hogg’s men in the opening 10 minutes of the second period.

“We did quite well in the first half but let ourselves down in the second,” said Olivier.

“We knew Saracens would come with a lot of pace in the second half, they are known for it, and we just buckled a bit under the pressure.

“Two minutes into the second half Saracens kicked a penalty and then two minutes after that they scored a try from a silly mistake, which put us under pressure.

“From then on we were under pressure for the rest of the game.

“We were not going to get a tougher test than Saracens in the first game and there were a lot of positives and negatives from it.”

Warriors have a quick turnaround and will be sweating over the fitness of prop Nick Schonert (shoulder) and skipper Gerrit-Jan van Velze ahead of Friday’s M5 derby against Gloucester at Sixways (7.45pm).

Full-backs Chris Pennell (neck) and Ben Howard (ankle) and wing Bryce Heem (knee) are set to miss the showdown.

Gloucester opened up a big advantage before crashing to a 38-31 home defeat to Leicester Tigers in their opening match.

“It’s a big derby and Gloucester had a tough result after leading 31-7,” said Olivier.

“It’s a derby on our new artificial surface and anything can happen.

“It’s a big challenge for us and we need to challenge ourselves and put our game on to the field.”