SIXWAYS star Chris Pennell believes Worcester Warriors rediscovered their “mojo” in the 25-17 Gallagher Premiership defeat at Saracens.

Warriors led 14-0 and 17-8 in an impressive first-half display before the defending champions scored 17 unanswered points to clinch victory and leave Alan Solomons’ men with nothing to show for their efforts.

But Pennell was encouraged by Warriors’ performance in attack after their sorry showing in last week’s 32-6 home thrashing to Northampton Saints and felt they got back to playing “heads-up rugby”.

“We were obviously really disappointed with the way we played against Northampton,” said the 31-year-old full-back.

“Saturday was about coming out and getting back to enjoying our rugby.

“We like to play and move the ball as we have got dangerous players all over the park that can make bursts.

“We gave ourselves that opportunity whereas the previous week maybe due to the conditions or we were a little bit low on confidence for whatever reason we didn’t do that.

“On Saturday we regained a little bit of that mojo.”

Warriors burst out of the traps at Allianz Park, scoring inside the opening five minutes as Francois Hougaard pounced on a loose ball and fed Duncan Weir who went over in the corner.

The returning Ben Te’o then dotted down for Worcester’s second try on 14 minutes after Perry Humphreys broke through Saracens’ defence.

“I thought we played heads-up rugby so when it was on to run we went for it which I think is to do with confidence,” Pennell said.

“Last weekend for whatever reason we weren’t quite as sharp as we needed to be.

“At Saracens we saw the opportunities and took them and kicked the ball when we needed to.

“I thought our nine and 10 controlled the game exceptionally well in the first half.

“We are given the licence to play what we see and on a day like Saturday it was perfect conditions to do so.”

Pennell also welcomed the addition of England international Te’o to Warriors’ midfield.

The centre made his first start of the season for Worcester after being given a three-week break by Solomons to recover from his exertions in the autumn Tests.

“I thought Ben did really well as he gave us front-foot ball when we needed it,” Pennell said.

“Ben’s experience would add to any side so we were really pleased to have had him out there with us.”

But Pennell was frustrated Worcester were unable to produce an 80-minute performance as Sarries proved too strong in the second period.

After Mako Vunipola crashed over to get his side off the mark in the first half the hosts then competed a comeback triumph courtesy of tries from Calum Clark and David Strettle.

“The chat at half-time was to keep doing what we were doing as we were controlling the game well and played with patience,” Pennell said.

“What Sarries wanted us to do was to play a little bit looser.

“We didn’t want to do that but for whatever reason, possibly we got quite excited that we had been playing well, we started to move the ball a little bit more than we needed to.

“We need to learn from those moments that there is nothing wrong with us going back to basics and doing what we did in the first half which was controlling field position well.”