Beware of leaping to conclusions. Just because all three of Bristol, Bath and Gloucester lost in the Guinness Premiership last weekend, it doesn't mean that West Country rugby is in decline, anymore than a defeat or two for Australia's cricketers in the last few months means that England will win back the Ashes this summer.

The fact that it took six months and 20 rounds of Guinness Premiership matches before all three West Country clubs tasted defeat at the same time is remarkable in itself – Bristol, after all, have won only two matches all season. The fact that it happened when it did suggested that all three had their minds on other competitions.

Bristol Rugby were already thinking about the Championship. Although they entered their match against London Irish with a mathematical chance of staying in the Premiership, they also knew that they had been destined for the drop ever since the home defeat by Newcastle in February. Once Worcester beat Saracens, their fate was sealed and they could set out on a journey they had already made twice before.

They've bounced back twice before as well, and the knowledge that there is life after relegation will serve them well in the months to come. So too will history and tradition, but only in the sense that past glories have built a regular and faithful following.

But as one eminent critic pointed out last week, the idea of a "sleeping giant" has no place in the professional era. Yes, it is true that Bristol is unique in that it has probably the largest centre of population in the country with a genuine rugby catchment area and no competition from Premiership football, but wishful thinking is no longer enough. Nostalgia ain't what it was and tradition doesn't win matches. What's needed is backing like Gloucester's and support like Bath's.

Gloucester, meanwhile appear to have been thinking of the EDF Energy Cup, whose final they reached with a stunning whitewash of the Ospreys. The brilliance of that display was in marked contrast to the paucity of their showing at Northampton where the Cherry and Whites succumbed to a fifth away defeat in a row. It was a stark contrast, too, to last season, when they finished the regular league season with a flourish to end up top of the table for a second successive season.

But they failed to win the Premiership on both occasions and, while there's one line of argument that says that following those bitter experiences, Dean Ryan's men would be better advised to keep some shots in their locker for the play-offs, there's another that warns that, in this particular season, with so many teams in the shake-up for the last four, any let-up in intensity could prove costly.

From leading the Premiership for so long, Gloucester are now fifth – and sweating not just on their own form, but the results of others.

Bath's distraction has been the Heineken Cup. The first English winners of Europe's premier domestic trophy have a quarter-final against Leicester, the only team to win it two years in a row.

They too were ambushed in the Premiership play-offs last season – after finishing third, they were mugged by eventual winners Wasps. It's just possible therefore that they were keeping their powder dry last week in home defeat by Harlequins, subconsciously aware that even if they lost, they would still be handily placed for the play-offs.

Thought processes such as those displayed by Bath and Gloucester to my mind highlight a glaring fault in the system. The winner of the Premiership does not have to finish top at the end of the league part of the season.

Indeed, Gloucester's lack of silverware after twice finishing top of the heap, and Wasps' bulging trophy cabinet after four successful charges from the back of the field, suggests that season-long consistency is not always the best thing to aim for.

In recent seasons the team that won most matches in the league has not always won the Premiership. That is wrong. The whole point of getting teams to play each other home and away over the course of the season is to discover the most consistent, and reward them with the title, and at the same time identify the least consistent, and punish them with relegation.

Bristol have finished bottom and accepted their fate. Let's hope that if either Bath or Gloucester finish top of the heap, they go on to win the play-off final at Twickenham. That would be a fitting reward.