EVERYBODY at Sixways is talking it up but when it comes to priorities - the EDF Energy Cup is very much bottom of the list.

Worcester would do well to qualify from pool D' with their strongest possible line-up but, with a team of fringe players and youngsters, will be lucky to harvest a single win from their games with Northampton, Leicester and Newport-Gwent Dragons.

If the Premiership was the main target at the start, Warriors' perilous position at the bottom means it is now critical to a club that has ambitions of gate-crashing the country's elite.

The Anglo-Welsh is not a competition they can realistically compete for and they cannot afford to suffer the kind of injury setbacks which characterised their ill-fated run in the competition last year.

"It doesn't matter as much as the Guinness Premiership," admitted director of rugby John Brain. "I think it is a competition with an excellent format and whoever wins it, qualifies for the Heineken Cup.

"We've got two home games in our pool stage so we have got to look at it with a view that we have got a real chance of progressing to the knock-out stages which is what we would like to do."

Indeed they would, but Worcester's best chance of Heineken Cup qualification will undoubtably come through the European Challenge Cup. In that competition, they would expect to qualify for the group stages with their eyes shut.

The positive spin on the EDF Energy Cup is that it represents a chance for the lesser lights to make an impact and force their way into the selection picture when the real business starts up again in a fortnight's time.

"It actually gives us a very, very good opportunity to re-group and look at different personnel in one or two positions to try and create some competition for places and to improve all aspects of our game," said Brain.

There is no shortage of logic in that comment. The players entrusted with the shirts so far have not exactly cemented their positions and there is no reason to doubt the likes of Gavin Quinnell and Miguel Avramovic cannot add something to the team.

The coaches have identified the lack of a cutting edge in attack as the reason for their downfall in recent games, particularly Saturday's defeat at Bath.

"Obviously what concerns us from the weekend, is we didn't look like breaking them down," said Brain.

"That is a key area to address going forward, the way we attack as a team and the way we integrate forwards and backs."

Another thing that has been hurting Worcester in the first month of the season has been their yellow card count. But Brain insists it is a by-product of their inability to sustain pressure.

"When you are on the back foot in rugby, you have got a tendency to be ill-disciplined," he said.

"There is a greater need to infringe and in the four matches that we have played, we have been on the back foot more than the front foot.

"I think some of the sin-bins that have occurred, have been silly and unnecessary from our point of view but some have been questionable from a refereeing point of view."