John Brain has vowed his Warriors will be “mentally and physically fresh” when they return from a three-week break to tackle Bristol in a crunch Guinness Premiership clash.
Warriors travel to the Memorial Stadium for the televised game on Saturday afternoon looking to make it four successive league victories and pull away from the foot of the table.
The Sixways side team has not played top-flight action since the epic victory over Newcastle Falcons in mid-March.
But Director of Rugby Brain insists his team are primed for the big kick-off in front of the cameras and a packed house.
“The difficulty is picking up the intensity of Guinness Premiership rugby after a layoff, but I think we will be mentally and physically fresh,” he said.
“A three-week break is not ideal but we have managed it as well as we can, the players have had some well deserved time out and we have given them some game time by using the A team fixture at Leeds.
“The last time the Premiership took a break, teams came back and not a lot of good rugby was played that weekend.
“We have adopted a different strategy this time and at this stage of the season it is crucial that players are mentally and physically ready to play. I think our guys will be ready.
“We are playing well and we have got to make sure we are keen to get going. The start to the game will be crucial and that is the key to re-establishing some momentum.”
Worcester won the previous top-flight visit to the Memorial Stadium in January 2006 but suffered a heavy defeat on the opening day of this campaign when Richard Hill’s men visited Sixways.
However, Brain knows his Warriors are now a very different team to the one that started the year.
“Our season did get off to a very poor start against Bristol but we are a different team now right across the park with a different mentality. We expect to play well on Saturday,” he said.
“They have had a very good season and if the season was to stop now they would consider it a success. To be in with a shout of finishing in the top four is a tremendous achievement in your second season in the competition.
“They had a fantastic start but obviously over the last five league games our form has been better than their form.
“And we have played pretty well against Bristol in the Premiership, we have played them three times and we played pretty well on two of those occasions.
“It is close at the bottom but we won’t be thinking about what they (Northampton) are doing or what the mood is like in their camp. All I’m concerned about is us and we know if we approach the game in the right way we are in with a real shout of winning it.
“It is effectively another cup final for us but we don’t think about the significance of the outcome, we have a clear focus on what we need to do to win that match.”