Burrell tells Saints to take action at Worcester

The black, green and gold face a crucial Gallagher Premiership game at Worcester Warriors (kick-off 7.45pm).

The two teams are currently locked on 17 points in the league standings, with ninth-placed Worcester above Saints thanks to points difference.

And Burrell knows how important this match is for Saints.

"We're approaching the halfway point and it's going to come a point where we're going to have to have a good look at the table and figure out where we want to be," the centre said.

"We know we went to Sale and didn't perform as well as we'd have liked.

"We had Newcastle here and they managed to pip us at the end.

"This is another huge game for us and we have to learn our lessons.

"Worcester are in a similar position to us and it's a huge game on both sides.

"Thankfully we had a good performance in our last game, against the Dragons, and that's given us a bit of momentum.

"Hopefully we can carry that through.

"Training has been intense and the leaders have spoken really well.

"We've got to be a team of doers and hopefully we can get some points."

Saints go into the game on the back of a rare weekend off.

They were scheduled to play Timisoara Saracens in a Challenge Cup encounter in Romania, but the match was called off 30 minutes before kick-off.

Saints were then stuck on a plane at Timisoara Airport for six hours before disembarking and eventually being forced to fly back to England on Sunday evening.

But Burrell, who was named as captain for the Timisoara clash, insists that snow-hit weekend has had no impact on preparations for this Friday's game.

"Thankfully the week was as normal," he said.

"We came in Monday and the lads just ripped in.

"Obviously the lads who weren't playing took the mick out of us. They were all chilling out and having family weekends and we were out over there for 72 hours.

"But preparations have been good and it's a big game and they're going to be a tough team to crack down there.

"We know how important this game is and for what we want to achieve as a team.

"Preparations have been good, we've had a good edge in training and the boys are looking forward to the challenge."