WORCESTER Warriors director of rugby Alan Solomons admits the narrow 24-20 defeat to French side Pau last weekend was a tough pill to swallow despite a spirited performance.

Solomons made 14 changes to the starting 15 that lost to Bath in the Gallagher Premiership a week before but it was an impressive performance regardless.

"It was really, really disappointing," he said.

"It was not an easy place to go and play and I thought the lads did really well, went in level at half-time and went into the final minutes leading so to lose was tough.

"We should have kicked when we passed and that gave them the scrum that eventually led to the driving maul that provided the try in the end.

"It was really sickening to lose the game like that."

Despite the disappointing result, Solomons was full of praise for a lot of players who haven't played a lot of rugby.

"Our lineout operated really well,"

"Our defensive maul was pretty good and I thought we played sensibly, it was a wet pitch and we played in the right areas and in that back 20 minutes we played well, dominated territory and possession.

"A lot of young lads and a number of lads who haven't played in a long time gave a really good account of themselves.

"The boys were down about it, obviously."

Warriors face Welsh side Ospreys this Saturday evening in their second game in this block of European fixtures and Solomons hinted there would be more alterations to the team.

"I think there will be some form of rotation," he admitted.

"We have to use this time to keep everyone playing before we go into the next block of Premiership games.

"So we need to keep that in mind.

"Ospreys are a well known club but I think the important thing for us is to focus on what we can do rather than the opposition."

There was only one injury worry ahead of that clash with the Welsh outfit and that was prop Conor Carey, who has a hamstring problem that is likely to rule him out.

Otherwise, Solomons reported no new injury concerns.