Bristol, Bath and Gloucester hunt final European Champions Cup spot

Gloucester narrowly beat Bristol when the two west country rivals met in the autumn

Bristol face a "huge" derby against Gloucester with both clubs chasing the final spot in the Champions Cup next season, says director of rugby Pat Lam.

The Bears are eighth in the Premiership table, one point and two places in front of their rivals ahead of their game on Saturday.

Only the top eight teams in the league qualify for Europe's elite tournament.

Ninth placed Bath are also in the race, level on points with Bristol and play Saracens this weekend.

"It's really important, as everyone knows it's on our table," Lam told BBC Radio Bristol.

"We want to play with the best, even if we come in as the eighth team that means we're still going to have the carrot of that we'll get a big club - we could even end up with Leinster, we could end up playing La Rochelle.

"That's what you want, you want to test yourself against the top teams, the better teams in the sense of where they're at. That is important to us and we know that. It's a huge game for us and we need to perform."

Bristol spent this season in the Challenge Cup - Europe's second-tier competition - and reached the last 16, while Gloucester fell to an agonisingly late defeat by La Rochelle in the same stage of the Champions Cup.

Neither team are in good form in the Premiership going into the final game of the campaign. Despite winning four in a row through February and March, Bristol have not won in their last three games.

Gloucester's winless streak in the league stretches back five games to 17 February.

"It's obviously very very tight with three or four of us there in that spot in the table. Us and Bristol are right next to each other," Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"From that point of view it's just about winning the game, it's about going to Bristol and doing all the things we've been doing well and trying not to give away a couple of easy scores.

"We know Bristol will play the ball, we know there will be exciting rugby we know they've got some big hitting names in that squad who are playing their last game for Bristol. We know what sort of game Bristol are going to play."

From bottom to fighting for Europe

Bath, who won the Champions Cup in 1998, are looking to end their season on a high after starting the campaign with a seven-game winless run.

They were bottom of the table in March but wins against Exeter, Gloucester and Harlequins have moved them into European contention.

They take on top of the table Saracens, who have long secured their place in the Premiership play-offs and have a home semi-final to contest on 13 May.

"It's definitely possible. The important thing for us as a group this week is continuing with our journey and playing the way that we like to play and getting better - that's been the message the whole season so far," head of rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol.

"We ran them close earlier in the year at their stadium, but it's the last game of the season, we're playing at a sold-out Rec and hopefully we can perform."