DIRECTOR of rugby Gary Gold insists Worcester Warriors cannot afford to give away any “mindless” penalties against Sale Sharks at Sixways tomorrow (7.45pm).

Gold’s call comes after seeing Warriors’ penalty count reach double figures in their 31-27 victory over Leicester Tigers at Welford Road last Saturday.

Warriors’ chief said he was left “astonished” by an “incredibly bizarre” performance from referee Greg Macdonald who penalised Worcester 16 times and Leicester only once.

But he admitted his side also contributed to this and stressed they would need to improve their discipline to stand a chance of extending their winning run in the Aviva Premiership.

“There were certainly penalties that were completely justified and that’s not acceptable,” Gold said.

“But it was an astonishing penalty count.

“I can’t believe that Leicester made one infringement in the entire 80 minutes of rugby. We nearly doubled what our average has been all year so it is astonishing. We target getting a single figure penalty count as it is such an important aspect of the game.

“Sale will come down here with an absolutely star-studded team so if you give mindless penalties away they are going to kick their goals or kick for the corner and come with a massive pack. They have got a very good set piece so if we start giving them penalties and giving them momentum we are going to be in a lot of trouble.”

But Gold praised the “fortitude” of his troops for overcoming Leicester who set up a tense finale with a late Gareth Owen try.

“We saw two factors last weekend as we saw an incredibly bizarre referee performance with 16 penalties to one and we saw particularly hostile crowd,” he said.

“We realised we had to overcome that which was difficult. I think there was a huge amount of fortitude shown. I suppose in times gone by we may well have capitulated.

“We could be ruing a couple of mistakes we made and penalties we gave away.

“It was a very courageous effort.”