ANNOYED Steve Borthwick admits Bath's stuttering start to the league campaign has handed their Zurich Premiership rivals a massive boost when they meet this season.

The 21-year-old second row is furious that, unlike in previous seasons, opposing teams now believe Bath are there to be beaten thanks to their early-season struggles which have left them near the foot of the table.

And the five-cap England ace has warned that another defeat against Wasps on Sunday (3pm) could send them hurtling back towards the Premiership basement.

Bath leapt up to fourth from bottom last weekend after beating Newcastle 24-9.

Borthwick said: "I'm really annoyed and disappointed that we are down where we are and if we don't start performing, that is where we will be staying.

"It was nice to get off the bottom but what tempers it is the fact that with one bad result we will be right back down there again.

"What is really annoying is that us being down there is giving other side's confidence.

"Teams are coming into games thinking they can beat us and that's not on. I want sides to be afraid of us."

After weeks of bad breaks, absences and misfortunes, which have decimated their squad, Borthwick believes the luck may have turned in Bath's favour.

"We were pleased with the win but we're not going over the top," he insisted, referring to the win over the Falcons last weekend.

"I think we had a bit of luck when Dave Walder got injured, but we should have won the game a lot earlier.

"We created so many scoring chances and didn't take them and Newcastle had us under a bit of pressure early on.

"But winning is a habit and scoring tries is a habit and hopefully we can carry that into the next few games."

Borthwick is keen to bury his personal disappointment on the England front by helping Bath ascend the Premiership ladder.

An appearance in England's meaningless world-record thrashing of Romania two weeks ago was his sole contribution to the national team this autumn and he saw Leicester's young prospect Ben Kay leap above him in the second row pecking order.

"It was disappointing, although it was pretty obvious that would happen after the Australia game," conceded the Carlisle-born ace.

"The disappointment for me was that I was ranked No 3 in the country for the Ireland game and then I fell behind without doing anything really."

Wasps are another side to struggle at the moment, currently propping up the rest of the table with just two wins from their nine games.

But games between the two have always been fiercely-contested, Bath winning all three meetings including the Zurich Championship semi-final last season.

"We may be both near the bottom but I don't think a Bath-Wasps game needs an extra edge," conceded Borthwick.

"They will be very unhappy at their own position and will be desperate to hammer us.

"They've got a squad packed full of quality players.

"If they get on top, they have players who can rip us apart.''