WARRIORS director of rugby Gary Gold is adamant the fight for Aviva Premiership survival is still very much on despite his side’s triumph over basement side Bristol at Sixways on Sunday.
The Worcester chief believes the Ashton Gate outfit, who sit seven points adrift of Warriors after the resounding 41-24 defeat, will not ‘roll over’ and is sure they will pick up a couple of wins across their last five games.
Gold has also called on his players to replicate their home performances when they travel to leaders Wasps in a fortnight’s time as they go in search of their first away win of the campaign.
“There’s a lot of quality in the side and all the guys needed was a bit of belief. I was really happy with the performance against Bristol, as we kept our heads down and saw the game out,” said Gold.
“I didn’t want it to be a bittersweet day where Bristol managed to pick up the two points, but with ten minutes to go the reserves came on and offered us energy to get the job done. We kept going until the end.
“I knew at half time we absolutely had to come out and play as if the game was still level.
“I had coaches coming up to me saying we had been in this position many times before, where we would take our foot off the gas. Hopefully we’ve put that demon to bed now.
“There’s still five games to go and what Bristol do in those five games is out of our control.
“They have good coaches who’ve got the squad playing and I actually thought they were very competitive against us. They were unbelievably difficult to break down and made us work so hard.
“They won’t roll over. They could still get a couple of away wins and they’re a very strong side at Ashton Gate.
“Anything can happen, but we have to pick up a couple of wins ourselves. Our next step is to play away from home like we do at Sixways.
“We have a lot of work to do ahead of Wasps, so I’m glad we have this break,” he added.
Warriors travel to the Ricoh Arena to take on Wasps on Sunday, March 26 (2.30pm).