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When Bristol and Gloucester meet in a West Country derby on Saturday, whoever wins will gain more than just points.
Both have had a disappointing start to the Premiership season and lost their last five games in a row.
They go into the match at Ashton Gate in Bristol eighth and ninth in the table, separated by a point.
“I don’t think there’s any getting away from two teams who haven’t had the start of the season they wanted,” Gloucester boss George Skivington said.
“I wouldn’t know the details of exactly why on their behalf but I think there’s two teams desperate for a win and I think it will make for an exciting derby in a different way.”
He told BBC Radio Gloucestershire: “We’d rather it was fighting at the other end of the table but the reality is both teams are desperate for a win, both teams probably don’t feel like they’re a million miles away from getting one.”
A sixth loss this weekend would equal Bristol’s worst run of form in the league since 2017 – the year they were relegated from the Premiership.
However, Bears director of rugby Pat Lam said his team is well aware results have not been up to the standard the club would expect or want.
“We know, we’re all competitors, we want to win rugby that’s what we go out to do,” he told BBC Radio Bristol.
“Unfortunately not everyone wins every week. But when you focus on that – and I never have – I’ve been here before when we’ve won games consecutively and lost games – it’s the same process, it’s the next game and what you improve on.
“You look at the opposition, you look at what we’ve been doing and how you get better and you go again.”
After losing narrowly to both Bath and Saracens late on, Lam believes the results have not told the whole story of the Bears’ performances.
They have also been boosted by the return of flanker Steven Luatua who has not played since the first match of the season through injury.
“We’ve had close margins in a lot of the games and the confidence is good, trained well and we know that that’s in our control to get the win,” Lam added.
“We all want the win, the supporters want the win and we’re not far away so hopefully this will be the week.”
A few miles up the M5, pressure continued to build on Skivington from Cherry and Whites fans after their home defeat to Leicester last weekend, their third at Kingsholm this season.
The head coach has been in his post since 2020 and said everyone is aware the team’s form has not been good enough.
“We’re all disappointed with the current form at the moment. We’re not going to make any excuses for it or anything like that,” Skivington said.
“We’re all coming in on a Monday pretty upset and working our way through it.
“We’ve probably in every game done something really, really well and fallen off on something else. We just talked a lot this Monday about let’s get it right across the board and we’ll be a good team.”
Recent history says that the team who has the home advantage usually comes out on top in this fixture. The last five meetings have seen no away wins, making the challenge seemingly even bigger for Gloucester.
Other than a painful one-point loss to Exeter with the final kick of the game two weeks ago, they were comfortably beaten by Saracens, Sale, Bath and Leicester.
Game management and consistency are key areas Skivington said the side have been working on as they look to turn their season around.
“As it stands there’s bits and pieces that are going well in one game and dropping off in another,” he added.
“It’s not ideal, it’s not where we want to be but everyone is working really hard. We’re not feeling sorry for ourselves we’re just getting on with the job.”
