COOL-HEADED full-back Chris Pennell has been putting on a catching masterclass to improve Worcester Warriors players’ aerial skills according to fly-half Jono Lance.

Director of rugby Alan Solomons found that “a lot” of Wasps’ tries in the Premiership Cup defeat last Saturday stemmed from when Worcester lost the aerial contest.

Since then Warriors have spent extra time practising their catching and Lance believes he and his team-mates are “lucky” to be able to pick the brains of Pennell.

“We have worked on our catching a lot this week,” Lance said.

“I have played with some good full-backs in my time and Chris is up there with the best high-ball catchers in the world.

“He is always a good person to get some tips from on how he goes about it because he doesn’t drop too many and if he does he is pretty safe as houses with the next one. It’s about learning from your errors and we are pretty lucky to have Penns at the club for a lot of us to have a chat to.”

Pennell, 32, is set to make his 230th appearance for Warriors on Saturday (3pm) when he runs out at Sixways to tackle Leicester Tigers in the Gallagher Premiership.

“He won’t like me saying it but he is a bit older now,” Lance added.

“I think just that experience of catching high balls a lot of times and doing it well over the years makes someone quite calm in that form of skill when it is quite a pressurised environment.”

Solomons was left frustrated at seeing his players fumble many high balls in the 39-6 loss at Wasps.

“We lost the aerial contest and we paid a price for that as a lot of their tries came from our mistakes in the air,” Solomons said.

“That is a lesson that we learned.

“We can be good in the air as players have the ability to do that, but we have to practise that.

“We have to spent extra time practising that and started that immediately.”