Harlequins co-captain James Horwill has called for his side to tighten up their defence despite a 47-33 victory over Worcester Warriors this weekend.

Despite running in seven tries and picking up a third consecutive Gallagher Premiership win, the Australian believes his side was soft in the defensive phase with five tries being shipped.

A fourth home win on the bounce has Paul Gustard’s side sitting third in the table, leading the pack chasing high-flyers Saracens and Exeter Chiefs.

Despite the result Horwill, 33, was left disappointed as the visitors ran in a quintet of tries at The Stoop, including out-scoring the hosts in the second half.

“It was great to get a result and get five points,” he said.

“But leaking 33 points is not where we have set ourselves this year and that’s what we said after the game – great result, great to be at home, five points, back up to third, that’s where we want to be.

“But we have got to be better on the defensive side of the ball and we gave Worcester a lot of opportunities which they were able to take.

“We were a bit soft and tight on defence, they were able to use the ball and get around us a couple of times.”

Horwill’s men scored freely in the opening half with tries from Joe Marchant, Gabriel Ibitoye, Mike Brown and Jack Clifford.

Danny Care, James Lang and Ben Tapuai all touched down in the second period.

The co-captain, who has 62 caps for the Wallabies, said it was a perfect start to a stretch of four games before another interlude in the Premiership calendar, with matches against Bath and Gloucester to come as well as Bristol Bears this coming weekend at The Stoop.

“We want to be in the top four and pushing for silverware at the end of the year,” he added.

“This is a crucial block for us, we have three home games which are critical for us. We’ve got to make the most of the home games and a big part of that is our fans.

“Hopefully we can get a full house here against Bristol, make it as noisy and hostile as possible and we can give them something to cheer about.”