JOHN Brain believes Worcester Rugby Club have already made giant strides from last year after a 53-3 mauling of Birmingham & Solihull at Sixways.

The head coach was satisfied with his side's display on Saturday as they dismissed the challenge of their Midland rivals in imperious fashion -- a far cry from the two encounters with Birmingham last season.

Worcester edged past the men from Sharmans Cross Road at Sixways and then drew with them in the final game of the last campaign.

And Brain believes the early signs this season are encouraging ones as Worcester go for the National One title and promotion to the Premiership.

"That was a difficult game for Worcester last year," he said. "Birmingham have the capacity to cause a lot of teams in this division a problem.

"The performance from us was good. We played better for longer this week than against Manchester.

"We still had a period where we were a little bit sloppy but overall I think it's a very positive result and performance.

"Scoring seven tries against them is very encouraging because although they lost last week, Coventry couldn't manage a try against them.

"They had the third best defence in the league last season, so to score that many tries was pleasing."

Winston Stanley and Ben Hinshelwood both bagged a brace of tries while Chris Yates, Chris Garrard and Tony Windo also touched down in a very impressive Worcester display.

And Brain was delighted with his half-back pairing of Richard Smith and Craig Chalmers who repeatedly carved holes in the Birmingham defence.

"Craig showed he has a lot of experience but also that he has a good appetite for the game. He wants to tackle which is always encouraging for a number 10," said Brain

"The up and under that led to Chris Yates' try was a good piece of play, a good example of someone reading the game. He knew the full-back was inexperienced in that position and he capitalised on it.

"Tony Yapp was also very good though because he had to come on for Sateki Tuipulotu at full-back and did very well."

Tuipulotu strained knee ligaments during the first half and is now a doubt for Saturday's clash at Henley Hawks.

"He has the golden right boot at the moment and we didn't want to take any risks which is why I brought him off. We'll just have to wait and see whether the injury is serious," said Brain.