IT'S difficult to forget about the derby defeat at Bristol last Sunday when you look at the Zurich Premiership table and our position in it.

As I said last week, derbies are special games, but whoever we play, we want to get the points in the bag and we're disappointed if we do not get them.

For the team at large, losing to one team is the same as another. But we don't like losing to Bristol and for the guys who have been here a bit longer that is undeniably a factor.

The perilous position we now find ourselves is not something that anybody in the club is taking lightly. We will continue to put in the effort to try and correct it, starting against Newcastle this Sunday.

The important thing now is to pick ourselves up there is little point in doing anything unproductive or being down in the mouth about it.

It's vital that you do something productive towards the next game. That means being in good shape for Monday morning and getting back into some good hard training. You have to take the emotion out of a defeat and look at the bare facts and each other as individuals.

One of the quotes we are frequently reminded of is "The only real failure is the failure to learn from your mistakes.''

Better players come through by working harder and looking where they went wrong.

We do a lot of work on the computer and video, and all sorts of statistics are given to us on all aspects of our game how many tackles you made, passes you received and so on.

You can improve yourselves as a result with individual training sessions with Jon Callard, Ellery Hanley and John Hall

We can't completely blame our current position on the fact that we have been missing so many players but there's no doubt that it has been a difficult time for us.

It has been great to see those players doing so well for their countries.

Catty (Mike Catt) and Danny Grewcock have been playing very well for England and hopefully we can turn this international situation into a positive for us now, with these guys in form.

Maggsy (Kevin Maggs) has also been in excellent form for Ireland, it's great to see him playing so well.

A greater talking point among the lads, though, is Maggsy's revelation to the world on BBC's Grandstand that one of his hobbies is gardening! A shock to everybody concerned!

One of the talking points to come out of last week's defeat was the refereeing.

We were heavily penalised at Bristol and we can have few complaints about that, especially when the most energetic thing we did in the first 40 minutes was to walk back behind our own posts!

However, everybody has a big responsibility to ensure we do not start sliding towards the football-style abuse of the laws.

There has been a bit of it creeping into the game, with over-reactions to every little decision and the players have a responsibility.

People need to realise that rugby is a physical game and there are going to be issues around that contact area that can be better discussed between players and referees.

Referees need to have a strong controlling influence and, above all else, give a lead. And players need to back that up by not whingeing.

Finally, we have been very interested to see the goings-on in the football world, with the threat of a strike.

We were close to that same situation last year, in support of the England lads who did go on strike in the autumn. But striking is a dangerous situation and perhaps the views of the public went against the England team a bit last year.

However, it is important players are respected as part of the game.

Our own union, the Professional Rugby Players Association, want to be a strong part of rugby and look after the future of the game and the welfare of players.

It's important players are looked after when they finish playing. A lot of our young players come straight out of school and don't do anything else but play rugby.

It's important to see something done for them.