WORCESTER Warriors chief Gary Gold admits his players have been off the pace in their opening two Aviva Premiership fixtures.

But he insists a slow start has not left Warriors in “uncharted waters” as they bid to fight their way back in the “marathon-long” campaign.

Worcester are bottom of the table with no points on the board. They lost 35-8 at Newcastle Falcons before going down 24-10 to Wasps at Sixways on Sunday.

Although admitting his Warriors troops needed to “improve quickly”, Gold is refusing to panic at this stage.

“We have got to understand this is the toughest competition in the world, so we are not going to get any easy games,” Gold said.

“We have just got to stay with the pace and we are really off it two weeks in.

“But it is a marathon-long competition and there will be lots of twists and turns.

“At this stage no one is panicking, we are very calm, but we have to be honest with ourselves and improve quickly.”

After their opening day loss at Falcons, Gold was pleased to see his side go “toe-to-toe” with last season’s Premiership finalists Wasps at Sixways.

Warriors were locked at 10-10 with 10 minutes to go before Willie Le Roux and Josh Bassett struck for Wasps.

“There were improvements, but I do think the same reason we lost the game last week we lost against Wasps,” Gold continued.

“Wasps are an attacking threat all over the park. If you look at the amount of defensive phases that we went through there is a huge amount of things we did well there.

“But we lost our way with the lineout late on in the game.

“We put ourselves under pressure and we have just got to understand that those errors against the top teams you will pay the price.”

Warriors are now preparing to host defending champions Exeter Chiefs on Friday (7.45pm). They will then visit local rivals Gloucester the following Friday before finishing the month with a home clash against high-flying Saracens on Friday, September 29.

“It doesn’t (get any easier against Exeter) and we’ve got Gloucester away and Sarries at home,” he said.

“But we have got to play everybody.

“We would prefer if we had a couple more players available, but it is what it is.

“It starts off tough for us, but it would not be uncharted waters for Warriors.

“As long as we can show the kind of courage and commitment (we showed against Wasps) we will stay in the fight.

“I thought our defence for large periods of the game was very good, but one or two silly errors put them in a field position they shouldn’t have been in and it cost us.

“That’s what the margins are at this level of the game.”