WORCESTER Warriors scrum-half Francois Hougaard admits the Sixways crowd make "a huge difference" as Warriors prepare to welcome supporters back to the stadium for the first time since March.

Worcester will have the honour of being the first Premiership side to host fans as 2,000 will fill the East stand after the government last week confirmed the return of spectators to sporting events.

Hougaard admits the players cannot wait.

"I think everyone is looking forward to having the Sixways faithful back," he said.

"Every home game, even if it's 15/20 guys, it makes a huge difference to hear that support when you do something well.

"You cannot always hear the crowd when you play but this weekend it'll be massive for us.

"Sometimes people say players don't appreciate fans enough but I promise you we really do and we really appreciate them."

Worcester will be hoping the fans can cheer them on to a better result than last week, when they were punished for their lack of discipline in the 30-13 defeat to Bristol Bears.

"We've only got ourselves to blame for that," he said

"It shouldn't have depended on refereeing decisions, we've got ourselves to blame for discipline."

"If you give penalties away 10 metres or so away from your try line and they get the drive going, it's very hard to stop that.

"You can't get back into the game when that happens twice in the final 15 minutes.

"They were silly penalties really, not ones we can say that aren't fair or things were out of our control - w need to be more consistent in that aspect of that game."

Despite the negative result, Hougaard says the game can act as a lesson going forward.

"In defence we were good, made some good tackles and good reads, good turnovers especially the one that lead to the Marco (Mama) score.

"And then Tommy (Howe) scored off a really good break from Billy (Searle) so we showed really good attacking moments.

"A lot of positives but at this level you cant make those silly mistakes."