NIGEL DAVIES revealed Christmas is back on at Kingsholm after Gloucester ended their five-match losing run with a nervy win against Worcester Warriors, writes Paddy von Behr.

The Aviva Premiership's bottom club, without a win in ten matches this season, ran Gloucester close on Sunday afternoon but ultimately fell short.

Billy Twelvetrees, standing in at fly half for an out-of-favour Freddie Burns, kicked four penalties to opposite number Ignacio Mieres' two before Paul Warwick almost touched down to steal a win for the Warriors.

It was just the Cherry & Whites' second home win in the league this season and Davies admitted defeat would have led to dire repercussions.

"We said that we would cancel Christmas if we lost this game. Christmas is back on, so they are pretty happy about that," he said.

"It was that important, really – I can't imagine any of us enjoying our Christmas if we hadn't got that result.

"It is vitally important that we got that result for our season and I firmly believe in the last four or so games we are taking little steps forward.

"It was a long week, this week. I played that game a million times in my head coming into this game.

"It obviously didn't help that the posts fell down (the kick-off was delayed by half an hour while they were repaired) but I was keen to get this game out of the way, with the result that we've got."

It was another frustrating afternoon for Worcester, who claimed just their third losing bonus point of the campaign, but head Dean Ryan believes his side is still making great strides.

He said: "I'm looking forward to the New Year because we're a different side to what we were eight or nine weeks ago – by a long way.

"We are a pretty strong group now and we're looking forward to seeing what comes round the corner.

"I'm proud of the effort today. We are getting better, irrespective of who we play."

Every match in the Aviva Premiership rugby season is crucial. To be there to support your team buy your ticket from premiershiprugby.com/tickets.