WARRIORS director of rugby Gary Gold believes next season’s Aviva Premiership campaign will be ‘even tougher’, insisting his side must keep improving if they are to avoid another relegation scrap.
Worcester wrapped up their 2016/17 Premiership campaign with a 28-23 defeat to Leicester Tigers at Sixways on Saturday, which meant they ended the season in 11th place, after picking up five wins and two draws from 22 outings.
Gold praised his side’s performance against Leicester, saying it demonstrated how much the team have progressed since his arrival in February.
But the Worcester chief insisted Warriors will have no more excuses for their inconsistency when they return for pre-season next month.
“There’s not a question of a doubt we could have won the game against Leicester. I’m never going to celebrate losing a game of rugby and it shouldn’t be a mindset we should become accustomed to,” said Gold.
“But we can be proud of that performance. From where we’ve come from as a group, you could see we demonstrated a really strong performance against a top-four team. We went toe-to-toe with them.
“Clearly there are things we need to do better and our set piece needs to improve. You can’t make silly errors against a team of Leicester’s quality or you’re going to pay the price.
“We knocked at the door for the last five minutes, which shows how close we were to getting a result.
“Next year is a fresh start and no disrespect to other teams that have come up to the Premiership in the last few years, but London Irish are not going to be a walkover. We’re going to have our work cut out for us.
“The competition’s going to get even tougher so we have to improve. There’s no more excuses. We need to be more consistent and win more games.
“I don’t want us to be in another position where we have relegation hanging over us. So now it’s time to take a break and spend some time with the family, before hitting the ground running in June. I want them hungry when they come back to work.”