SOUTH African Gary Gold insists he’s not looking beyond the “next seven or eight weeks” in his director of rugby role at Worcester Warriors.

The 49-year-old was drafted into Sixways earlier this month with second-from-bottom Warriors facing a battle to remain in the Aviva Premiership.

Gold guided Warriors to a memorable win over defending champions Saracens in his first top-tier match and then a bonus-point defeat against third-placed Exeter Chiefs last Saturday.

Gold has previously coached in the Premiership with Bath, London Irish and Newcastle Falcons and is initially at Warriors until the end of the campaign.

“I think our priority now is the next seven or eight weeks,” said Gold.

“I don’t necessarily want to think past that and I don’t think the club do either.

“The remit was pretty clear and I was asked what job I could do in the short time available.

“Before I arrived, the club were in this position and hopefully we can make some differences to get a couple of results on our side.”

Before Gold’s arrival, Warriors are believed to have expressed an interest in bringing former Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill to the club for next season.

However, Warriors’ hopes for Cockerill were dashed this week when the former England hooker signed a deal at PRO-12 outfit Edinburgh for next term.

Gold, whose family have remained in South Africa, says Cockerill’s decision to head to Scotland has "no impact" on him.

“At this stage, there is no impact on my life about what has happened to Cockers,” said Gold.

Departing Warriors back row Phil Dowson believes the next permanent director of rugby at Warriors will be “a vital cog in what happens next” at Sixways.

Dowson said the club’s next step had to be “the right one” after Warriors struggled on the pitch following Dean Ryan’s departure last summer.

Head coach Carl Hogg and high performance director Nick Johnston were given dual leadership roles after Ryan left.

However, the experiment didn’t work.

The partnership was broken up with Hogg taking sole charge of rugby matters at the end of November and Johnson returning to his original role.

With Warriors battling to stay up, much will depend on whether Warriors retain their Premiership status.

Worcester visit eighth-placed Northampton Saints on Saturday (3pm).

They are six points ahead of basement boys Bristol who travel to Sixways for a crunch relegation battle a week on Sunday.

Ironically, Bristol have appointed South African lan Solomons as a coaching consultant as they make a final roll of the dice.

“Solly was one of the first people I worked with 16/17 years ago,” said Gold.

“He’s a great guy, a very good rugby coach and a very good rugby man.

“He’s coached the Springboks and a number of teams including Northampton and Ulster and was hugely successful with the Stormers and Western Province in the late 1990s.”

Gold added: “I think he’s a good appointment (by Bristol). He’ll also be putting a lot of time and attention into the areas Bristol think they will need to work on. He’s a very astute man.”