FULL-BACK Chris Pennell reckons Worcester Warriors’ rivals Bristol Bears “suit us in a lot of ways” due to their licence to attack from “everywhere”.

Second-from-bottom Warriors will lock horns with an “incredibly dangerous” Bears side at Ashton Gate on Saturday (3pm) aiming to move clear of the Gallagher Premiership's drop zone.

Bristol are two places and seven points above Warriors but were hammered 52-7 when the teams met at Sixways in October.

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And Pennell hopes his side can exploit more gaps in the reverse fixture.

Although ninth-placed Bristol have been threatening in attack this season they have the poorest defensive record in the league.

Pat Lam’s side have conceded 454 points in their opening 16 games — 54 more than Worcester — and shipped 59 tries, the joint worst with Leicester Tigers.

“Bristol are one of those sides that suit us in a lot of ways,” Pennell said.

“They are incredibly dangerous as they just attack from everywhere.

“They are difficult to analyse as there is no set way they play.

“Sarries and Exeter are very dangerous in their own right but they have patterns that you can recognise and learn to try to cope with during the week whereas Bristol just play what is in front of them.

“When we played them at home we had two intercept tries because they tried to force it.

“They have got that licence to have a crack but they maybe don’t have the balance quite right.

“When they come up against a side like ourselves who like to defend high in the line and get up on the outside to try to cut off passes there is a good chance that we will get on the end of a couple more (intercepts).

“As long as we go there with that big-game mindset where the pressure is on us to come out fighting we have got every chance of coming away with a really good win like we did when we played them earlier on in the season.”

Warriors have struggled to click in attack at times this term, particularly in the 17-6 defeat at bottom club Newcastle Falcons earlier this month.

Pennell said it was “hard to pin-point the reasons as to why that happened” but reckoned confidence was the “biggest factor”.

“Look at the tries we scored against Exeter,” said Pennell on the 33-30 loss to leaders Chiefs two weeks ago.

“Other than (Bryce Heem’s) try, which was a set-piece move, the rest of them came from us just playing.

“There was no real structure to it. We are just playing what we see in front of us and that doesn’t come through a huge amount of conscious thought.

“That just comes through reacting. The only way you get that synergy within the group is through practise and having the confidence to have a go.”

On his try against Exeter, Pennell added: “It really opened up in front of me.

“No one communicated with Marco (Mama) to run a really nice, straight line off Francois (Hougaard) but he did it.

“That held the defender that would have been on me. (Olly) Woodburn was drifting out so it was up to me to step off my right and there would be nobody there to tackle me.

“It opened up and I managed to scoot over.”