LAPSES in concentration and poor game management are costing Worcester Warriors, admits experienced number eight Gerrit-Jan van Velze.

Warriors slumped to their third straight defeat in the Aviva Premiership last Friday as Exeter Chiefs ran out emphatic 41-10 winners at Sixways.

Despite their sorry start, van Velze says there is “no cause for panic” as he believes Warriors showed they can go toe-to-toe with Exeter.

But he insists they need to stop creating a “snowball effect” where they find themselves defending their own tryline following their mistakes.

“We are doing more negative things than positive and that’s the reason why there aren’t many results going our way currently,” van Velze said.

“But it is all stuff we can control as it is from the mistakes we make.

“It is very early days so there is no cause for panic and no calls for doing different things.

“This is a group of players that can get better.

“We can show that we can compete with teams for a certain period of the game, but that just needs to become 80 minutes.

Warriors were locked at 3-3 until the final 15 minutes of the first half when Exeter scored three converted tries.

Biyi Alo got one back for Worcester before Chiefs added 17 unanswered points including two tries.

“It was a very tough day, but credit to Exeter as I think they took every opportunity,” van Velze said.

“It is pretty clear we can’t defend for 60 minutes.

“I think we came out firing in the second half and kept hold of the ball, but we were still making a lot of mistakes.

“It is either a lapse of concentration or they just breach that gain-line and then we are almost in a snow ball effect where we defend again.”

The Sixways side, who visit Gloucester on Friday (7.45pm), have conceded 100 points in their first three league fixtures and are the only team not to register a point.

“We have definitely conceded a lot of points, but we have also defended a lot,” Gold said.

“I don’t know what the tackle count was, but it must be high and that comes down to game management and where we play the game.

“There is a process to defend and it works, but we are just defending a lot more than what we should.

“We showed for 40 minutes against Exeter it works, but we slip up and we concede.

“We tend to spend a lot of time in our 22 which makes things difficult.

“We are trying to tip the scales, so we can get more of the ball in their half and keep hold of it which builds pressure.”