JOHN Brain admitted that Worcester could have easily lost their Powergen Cup fifth round encounter at underdogs Halifax

The Sixways director of rugby was far from happy with his side's display in atrocious weather conditions and was relieved to book a sixth round tie at Leicester Tigers.

"That is a game, if you look at the conditions, that we could have easily lost," he said.

"The way the referee was going, in the last two or three minutes, all that it would have needed was for them to be in our half and he would have given a penalty. We would have been in the lap of the gods.

"We are disappointed with the performance but achieved the objective and we've now got the tie that we wanted against Leicester. There is relief that we've come through this and won but cup rugby is all about results and we're through to the next round."

Brain was, however, a little perplexed by referee Wayne Barnes' performance which almost cost his team a place in the next round.

"There were some rather baffling decisions," he added. "It's always going to be difficult when you come up here and have three officials based here. It's always tough and right through the game some of the decisions were baffling."

Brain was disappointed, however, with his forwards who came in for criticism last week after their capitulation at Rotherham.

"I think, in the first half, we were OK but in the second half we were just about going through the motions. We weren't really clearing effectively and struggled to get any continuity. The forwards have taken some stick recently and what we have to do is work hard and the next test is Rugby Lions and then Birmingham & Solihull. We are very aware of what a test Birmingham & Solihull will be for the pack.

"But let's not beat around the bush. Today's pack wasn't our full strength pack of forwards. It wasn't our full strength pack last week at Rotherham so people need to understand that. What we need to do is get our injured players back, work hard and restore some confidence next week."