ACE Chris Pennell admits Worcester Warriors’ players need to look at themselves in the mirror in a bid to bounce back from their 22-9 defeat at relegation-threatened London Irish.

Warriors arrived at the Madejski Stadium on Sunday looking to take another big step towards safety by registering a third successive Aviva Premiership win.

But Worcester were punished for their ill-discipline and mistakes as Irish ended a run of 14 straight league losses with a valuable victory.

The Sixways side were hampered by injuries to hooker Jack Singleton (back) and centre Jackson Willison (hand) prior to the game.

Director of rugby Alan Solomons also reckoned the physical exertions in beating Exeter Chiefs and Gloucester in recent weeks had taken its toll on his players.

But Pennell refused to look for excuses and instead felt the result was down to a lack of accuracy and Irish “wanting it that bit more” than Warriors.

“Emotionally and physically the past three weeks have been really tough,” said the 30-year-old full-back.

“In the Gloucester and Exeter games we made over 200 tackles which undoubtedly had an impact.

“But in saying that we arrived in Reading on an eight-day turnaround feeling like we were ready to go.

“Credit to Irish as they outdid us physically so we have got to look at ourselves in the mirror and bounce back for Sunday’s game at home to Leicester Tigers which is another massive opportunity.”

Piet van Zyl’s 27th-minute try and 17 points from the boot of Greig Tonks guided Irish to only their second league win of the season.

It also kept their survival hopes alive, cutting the gap between themselves and Worcester to 12 points with six games remaining.

“We have got to hold our hands up and say Irish were the better side on the day,” Pennell said.

“The frustration at the end of the game was that we did not represent ourselves the way we wanted to.

“The effort was there but on the day Irish, with everything they have got to fight for, wanted it that bit more.”

Warriors’ “dangerous” backline has caused many teams problems this season but they failed to create a try-scoring opportunity against the league’s bottom club with Pennell scoring all of his team’s points.

“Irish put us off our stride,” said Pennell who was forced to move from full-back to outside centre due to Willison’s absence through injury.

“But we didn’t help ourselves with the opportunities which we had, particularly in the second half, as we really struggled to impose ourselves on the game.

“We know we are a good side as we can set the tempo and play at pace.

“Set-piece is key to that but we weren’t on the money and the accuracy wasn’t there so it was hard for us to build our multi-phase game.

“It’s after seven or eight phases when we use our dangerous back three to break the line and create space on the edges.

“Maybe once or twice we held onto the ball for longer than six phases.”

Pennell added: “The effort from everyone was outstanding.

“The boys that came off the bench brought a lot of energy but it was one of those days where we were not accurate enough across the board which ultimately cost us.”