OUR matches against Gloucester tend to be good games and Saturday was no exception.

It is obviously disappointing to lose -- but at least we put ourselves in a position where we could have won it.

There was a lack of direction towards the end but there was certainly no lack of commitment.

But at least the things we did wrong are things that are not too difficult to put right.

It wasn't easy for a lot of the young guys and I thought Uche Oduoza did really well. He was a credit to himself and he did everything right.

That sort of experience is invaluable for a guy like him. He's starting to make steps towards achieving what we know he's capable of.

The European Challenge Cup match on Saturday is such an important game I think it will go up another level from the previous encounter.

After the result on Saturday this game becomes even more important and both teams know how vital its is in terms of European ambitions.

Both teams have got a lot riding on this tournament. Everyone knows what is at stake and everyone is looking forward to it.

It's very frustrating to lose a local derby and it just makes you want to work harder. The fact that it's Gloucester and the importance of the competition is all the motivation we need.

As I said, it's now just a question of putting the little things right. There were small aspects of our game which didn't quite work out.

We lost our way towards the end and we were a little bit directionless. If we had been a bit smarter we would have got a bonus point -- that's the biggest frustration we took out of it.

To get nothing out of the game is a big disappointment. At least the match on Saturday is a win or lose situation. There are no bonus points at stake.

If you are going to achieve something, it's good to do it against your local rivals. It's a huge challenge to play in games like this and it's great to play at Kingsholm.

Semi-finals are always the hardest game in any tournament. You are so close but you can still come away with nothing.

So it is very tense from that perspective but I think it's a unique scenario playing the same team twice in two weeks. In some ways, it changes things a little bit in the way you prepare and the way you analyse the opposition.

We're very familiar with each other now and it's all going to come down to what we do on the day. I, for one, am really excited about it.