THE heartbreak of Worcester Warriors’ last-gasp defeat at Wasps earlier this year will “add a little bit extra” to today’s derby, insists fly-half Tom Heathcote.

Dean Ryan’s men led 22-20 with two minutes left in January’s clash before late tries sentenced Warriors to a gut-wrenching loss.

Heathcote, 24, believes Warriors’ painful loss at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry will drive them on in today’s Aviva Premiership return at Sixways (3pm).

He said: “When we look at the season and think about the games we are most disappointed with, I believe it would be Wasps and London Irish away.

"We didn’t really turn up at Irish and were in such a good position at Wasps, playing well for a large part of the game only to get nothing from it.

“It was a very disappointing afternoon, so I am sure that will be part of the motivating factor and will add a little bit extra this weekend.”

Wasps have climbed to third in the Premiership table and booked their European Champions Cup semi-final place with a 25-24 win over Exeter Chiefs last weekend.

Warriors are trying to close the gap on ninth-placed Bath, who are three points above them.

Heathcote, who has played in 17 Premiership games this term, said: “We’ve still got three games to go to try to climb above Bath and they’ve got a game in hand as well but it’s by no means an easy one with them travelling to Sale.

“We would love to move up the table and hopefully, with a couple of good results, we can do that.

It’s a target of the whole squad and, being a former Bath player, it would be nice as well.

“We want to take the club to where it’s never been before.

“We recently achieved four Premiership wins in a row, which the club had never done before, and that’s something to be proud of.

“However, we now have to move on and look for the next goal to take the club forward.”

Warriors have not played since a bruising 50-12 loss at Exeter on April 2 and Heathcote feels they must “try to have a go” at the big sides in their remaining matches.

“The big teams will punish you quite easily, so we will have a lot of attacking intent and try to have a go at them,” he said.

“If you try to play too little against the big teams, you will not have a chance of winning. You must attack and have a go, so we will try to do that.”