GARY Gold has warned his players that life in the Aviva Premiership will not get any easier as Worcester Warriors bid to bounce back from their opening-day defeat.

Warriors’ director of rugby was left frustrated after watching his side crash to a 35-8 loss at Newcastle Falcons last Friday.

And with home games against Wasps, Exeter Chiefs and Saracens who all finished in the top three last season to come this month, Gold insists they will need to “regroup quickly” to avoid being trapped in a relegation battle.

“I have still got confidence as they are a good enough group of players,” said Gold whose side face Wasps at Sixways on Sunday (3pm).

“But we are going to have to be really tough on ourselves as it was an incredibly high error rate (against Newcastle) and our discipline let us down.

“It is not going to get any easier with Wasps, Exeter, Gloucester and then Saracens, but that’s the Premiership for you. It’s a tough old competition.

“It was a very bad day at the office (at Newcastle) and we are going to have to be aware that if Warriors don’t want to be in the same position they were in last year they are going to have to regroup quickly.”

Despite conceding four tries against Falcons, Gold reckoned Worcester who trailed 10-3 at half-time, “scrambled well” at times.

And he is confident coach Omar Mouneimne will tighten Warriors’ defence up ahead of their clash against Wasps.

The Coventry side scored seven tries in their 50-35 win over Sale Sharks last weekend.

“There were passages in our defensive display which we did really well,” Gold said.

“We scrambled well on the line and made tackles, but unfortunately the dam did break and they ended up scoring a handful of tries.

“There were a handful of tackles that were missed and there were some pretty poor defensive reads out there.

“We are going to have get that right because potentially some of the teams we are going to play are going to ask even more questions of us.”

Mouneimne who previously worked with Gold at the Sharks in South African was appointed defence and kicking strategy coach in late April.

“Omar prides himself on how hard he works,” Gold added.

“He is an exceptional defence coach and is definitely up there with one of the best in the world.

“It is disappointing (with how things went at Newcastle), but you have good days and you have bad days.

“We know we can go toe to toe with a pretty good Munster team.

“We know we have got good enough players, so we just need to apply ourselves a little bit more.”