91Èȱ¬

Gloucester-Hartpury's game against Sale will be a "test of their true character" after back-to-back defeats said flanker Bethan Lewis.

The two-time defending champions have lost their last two Premiership Women's Rugby matches, to Exeter and Saracens.

The club are now third in the table after four games this campaign, eight points behind leaders Saracens.

Lewis, who was making her first start for the season after playing in the WXV tournament for Wales, said the players are "human".

"We probably have a target on our backs as well this season. We can't take that lightly and we need to brush off these last two games and go into Sale this weekend all guns blazing," she told 91Èȱ¬ Radio Gloucestershire.

"I think this will be a test of our true character, how we brush ourselves off going forward."

Against Saracens last weekend, Gloucester-Hartpury led by 12 points at half-time but conceded four tries after the break to lose by five.

They last allowed more than 40 points in a league game in November 2020.

Lewis said the team's discipline let them down in the second half but with so many international players returning to the squad they will soon start gelling.

"We struggled to click a bit last week," Lewis added.

"Everyone was back in training fully last week, just for the one week, so we've definitely focused on [getting] back into it, getting to know how each other play again, so hopefully it will be seamless going into this week."

Head coach Sean Lynn said the issues in the performance against Saracens are "easy fixes".

They travel to Trailfinders on 9 November before the league takes a two-week pause.

"We're very disappointed that we've come on back-to-back losses. As a group we are going to pull together and making sure that going into Sale we're not going to take lightly," Lynn said.

"We've got two weeks where we can fix these issues and we know they are easy to fix."