THE experienced Chris Pennell says the gulf between the Premiership and Championship is “closing” and relegated sides are no longer guaranteed to come straight back up.

Worcester Warriors and Bristol, who meet at Sixways tomorrow (3pm), returned to the top flight at the first time of asking after relegation.

Warriors have retained their Premiership status since promotion in 2015 while 2017-18 Championship winners Bristol have hit the ground running this term.

But Pennell feels there are more second-tier teams with promotion ambitions.

Cornish Pirates lead the way ahead of Ealing Trailfinders and are four points clear of London Irish.

“When you look at the Championship and see the ambitious clubs starting to appear over the last few years there are people genuinely planning on promotion and sustainability at Premiership level,” Pennell said.

“In years gone by it has been the yo-yo teams that have come up and down whereas now you cannot assume they are going to bounce straight back up because there are sides in the Championship that want Premiership rugby and are building a squad capable of gaining promotion.

“The Championship doesn’t necessarily reflect the level of the Premiership yet but that gap is certainly closing in terms of the standard of rugby. That can only be a good thing.”

Bristol started with a 17-10 victory over Bath before leading at Saracens and Gloucester only to lose 44-23 and 35-13 respectively.

Pat Lam’s side, who recruited heavily over the summer, beat Harlequins 20-13 but went down 45-40 to Northampton Saints last weekend.

Pennell says Bears, who are two points ahead of Worcester, are in a “good place” and reckons his side need to be on fire in attack.

“Bristol were always going to (settle),” Pennell said.

“There is a pretty good record for teams coming out of the Championship to win their first game after promotion and Bristol have managed to maintain quite a lot of positivity off the back of week one.

“They certainly like to play with the ball so we know we are going to have to be on our game defensively but also need to score a lot of points to come out on top.”