IF they didn't know before the weekend, Worcester are well aware now that only they can shape their destiny. They certainly cannot rely on any favours.

Harlequins' bizarre 38-9 victory over Gloucester last Saturday brought them five points courtesy of four tries.

This was despite playing with a man down for 50 minutes of the Premiership encounter.

Throw into the pot a number of other surprise results this season, when teams at the bottom have suddenly pulled off a result, and you could forgive the odd Worcester supporter for being cynical. Let's face it, the establishment didn't expect the Premiership new boys to make such an impact on the top flight. They preferred the old plucky loser.

For John Brain -- Worcester's director of rugby -- their destiny is still in their hands and that is priceless at this point of the season.

"It didn't surprise me that Harlequins won because Gloucester are playing poorly," he said.

"If we'd have played anywhere near to our potential a couple of weeks ago then we could have beaten Gloucester. It's clear that they were poorer against Quins than they were against us and at the moment, if you were a Gloucester supporter, you'd be worried.

"They're certainly not improving. They're getting worse.

"What we know is that our destiny is in our own hands. Certainly, last weekend wasn't the worst set of results for us. Quins won but Northampton almost beat Saracens. Shane Drahm's kick hit the bar and, if that had have gone over in injury-time, I'd have been more miserable than usual!

"We get very mixed information regarding relegation and promotion. We don't know if the champions of National One satisfy the criteria because, at present, there's no clear front-runner.

"I think there is also some Premiership interest to expand the league so we're in the same situation as usual at this time of year. We don't know.

"We need to be in a position where we make the relegation issue an irrelevant one for us and that means finishing 11th or above. I don't think there are too many people in the game who make us favourites to go down anyway."

Worcester lie 10th in the Premiership, two points ahead of bottom-placed Saints, while Quins are level on points with the Warriors but having won less games. Leeds are just a point ahead of Brain's boys and London Irish have been sucked into the relegation dogfight following their recent results.

"We know exactly what we've got to do," added head coach Andy Keast. "We have to keep on performing and winning.

"But, at present, we've achieved nothing. We could still end up bottom and everyone would say that 'we competed'. We want respect as a Premiership team and there's only one way we're going to achieve that -- by staying up.

"We're half-way up that mountain but we can still slip back down if we don't continue to work hard. People are saying we won't go down but we can if we lose. We have to keep on working."