It's not do or die - five games left after Sunday, insists Worcester Warriors boss Gary Gold

And the former Bath, London Irish and Newcastle Falcons chief reckons it’s important to keep matters in “perspective”.

But a victory for bottom club Bristol on Sunday at Sixways would take them off the basement of the Aviva Premiership for the first time since September.

“I want the players to understand this is not a do or die situation,” said Gold, whose second-from-bottom Warriors are two points above their West Country rivals.

“We’ve still got five games left to go (after Sunday) in the season and I would like to believe we are getting better as a team.”

Gold believes demotion for Warriors or Bristol to the second tier of English rugby would not be the “end of the world” for either club.

“If one of the clubs goes back to the Championship, they will have another year in which to rebuild and come back again.

“It’s not the end of the world.

“I think we need to keep a perspective on this.”

Gold thinks Warriors and Bristol are “very similar” clubs for “many reasons” and “deserve” to be playing in the Premiership.

“Both come from rugby cities, are rich in tradition, love their rugby and have great rugby supporters,” said Gold.

“I suppose it’s a bit sad in the bigger English picture that you have two teams of this calibre who are struggling between the Premiership and the Championship.

“I think the reasons are quite clear why that is but I am not going to go into the reasons now.

“I think they are both teams who deserve to be playing Premiership rugby.

“I wish one of them wasn’t going to go down but both these clubs have been relegated before.”

Warriors have only won three top tier matches this term and lost 28-20 at Bristol on Boxing Day.

But Gold only arrived from South Africa last month after head coach Carl Hogg struggled in charge of first team affairs at Sixways.

He has seen Worcester pick up an impressive win against Saracens and collect five points from three matches.

In an interesting twist, Bristol brought in South African Alan Solomons as a consultant ahead of their crucial 12-11 win against Bath last Sunday.

The two men have worked together in the past and know each other well.

“Solly has gone into Bristol and I have come to Worcester,” said Gold.

“We have not invested in the emotion of why the clubs are at the bottom of the table. We have invested in the emotion of where we are now.

“We both had a phonecall to come in and give a hand (to the respective clubs) and that’s all we can do.

“I won’t be judged as a good or bad coach whether the team stays up or not.

"Hopefully, I will judged if the team improves and people can see there is a difference being made. I think keeping things in perspective is important.”