TWELVE points to go. So near, you can almost smell it.

With an 18-point lead already in the bag, Worcester only need three more wins to make sure of the National One title and promotion.

It has been a long old road but suddenly the club can finally see the promised land on the horizon. Many will, of course, say about time too.

I'm not one who subscribes to the viewpoint that this league is easy to get out of, however. People often throw the accusation up that Worcester -- with the amount of money they've had to play with -- should have made a better fist of this promotion lark a long time ago. Fair enough -- it's a point of view -- but not one which necessarily takes all the factors into consideration.

It's one hell of a slog. Winning promotion from National One takes a particular breed of player and, indeed, coach. One which is as hungry for the next match as the last one whether it's against a decent side or one which is fighting for its life at the wrong end of the table.

At Sixways we've seen plenty of players come and go and the ones which didn't last all had something in common. They couldn't approach each game with the same mental attitude. Granted, for a professional player, it isn't easy playing Orrell or Rotherham one week and then Manchester the next. Subconsciously, you put the teams on different levels. To win this league, however, you simply have to forget that and play 26 league matches as if they were all cup finals.

I remember the bemusement around the Worcester camp three years ago when the players travelled to Moseley on a damp, December day and came away with a devastating defeat. Of course, with players of the calibre of Earl Va'a, Alistair Murdoch and Rudi Keil on board, they should have romped home but the attitude upstairs wasn't good enough and they paid the price.

This Worcester set up, though, is a different proposition entirely. Winning 21 games in succession has been an extraordinary ascendancy but one which has its foundations in the mindset of the coaches and players.

Now, they stand on the brink of greatness as they bid to write their names in the National One record books. Another win on Saturday will make it 22 on the trot this season and will put them alongside Rotherham in the roll of honour from their momentous 1999-2000 campaign.

I've absolutely no doubt that they will go on and beat that record this season and 26 consecutive wins is well within their grasp. Certainly on Saturday, the players will be determined to make me eat my words after some criticism of the tackling on show at Penzance.

The criticism, however, simply comes with the territory when they've set such bewilderingly high standards this season. Indeed, they have the ideal chance to answer those observations in the most unequivocal fashion against National One's most improved side.

Worcester have shown enough times this season that they've got the steel to go with the style and, against Plymouth at Sixways, there will be another opportunity to show they can mix it physically with one of the biggest teams in the league.

Worcester's 43-17 victory at Brickfields back in November was an undeniable turning point for this team and club as they took on the Plymouth pack and out-muscled them. Since then, they have gone from strength to strength with Gavin Pfister's 18 tries a testament to the progress they've made.

"We've got 12 points to get," said coach Andy Keast. "Frankly, we don't care how they come whether it's pretty or ugly. If we have to win ugly then we'll do it because, next season, nobody will care how many points we took to win the title. People will just look at who won promotion."

Three games away from greatness. Ugliness really doesn't come into it.