DIRECTOR of rugby Gary Gold admits his desire to tighten up Worcester Warriors’ leaky defence took away from his side’s strengths in attack.

But with the help of Alan Solomons and the rest of his coaching staff he now believes Warriors are starting to strike the right balance.

Having conceded 74 tries across 22 Aviva Premiership games last season, shutting out teams was a big focus for Gold ahead of this term.

But with their defensive struggles continuing their ability to take their chances suffered too as they crossed the whitewash just six times in their first six matches.

Gold has now shouldered the blame for Worcester’s early season issues and reckons they are beginning to hit their straps with ball in hand.

They doubled their try count in a 41-35 defeat to Harlequins before scoring four further tries in their 30-15 win over Northampton Saints last weekend.

“It is my fault as I probably over emphasised on the defence too much at the beginning of the season because we leaked so many tries last year,” he said.

“I will take four tries every week if they are on offer, but you don’t necessarily want to be conceding five tries every week either.

“It is critically important to keep that balance right as you don’t want the pendulum to swing too far one way.

“You want to keep the enthusiasm around scoring tries but you don’t want to let your foot off the gas from a defensive point of view.

“I think the coaches have done a really good job in recalibrating this.”

Veteran coach Solomons joined Warriors in mid-October to provide support for head coach Carl Hogg and Gold.

“During the Anglo-Welsh Cup and European Challenge Cup we didn’t think it was going in the right direction,” Gold said.

“We felt we had gone too far away from our strength which was our attack.

“When Alan came in it was an observation that he made which was really helpful.”

Gold also reckons Worcester are making improvements in defence despite letting in 29 tries in the opening eight league games.

“The one way to look at our defence is to just see how many tries have been conceded,” Gold added.

“But we also measure defensive systems and whilst there are areas that still need some work there are areas that are definitely improving.

“It’s just about putting all those pieces together for them to become the perfect defensive outfit.”