WORCESTER’S Francois Hougaard says his team answered head coach Jonathan Thomas’ call for grit and determination despite conceding the win to Sale.
Hougaard was outstanding with a second-half hat-trick but the 33-year-old could not stop Worcester tumbling to their 14th league defeat in a row.
He said: “It’s tough, we came so close at the end but only have ourselves to blame. We had opportunities but it came down to silly mistakes. We knew it would be a fight to the end but if we could have kept the ball at the end no one knows what might have happened, but they stole the ball and that was it...