WORCESTER director of rug-by John Brain praised his side's "massive effort" after they overcame Premiership champions Sale at Edgeley Park.

Brain's men kept their Pr-emiership rescue bid on cour-se with an 18-12 victory in Stockport and the Sixways boss was delighted with the performance.

"We have come to a ground where it's not easy to play and we have come away two tries to nil," he said. "We are playing pretty well.

"I thought there was a lot of quality there. We scored two very, very good tries. We attacked pretty well. We put pressure on them and forced them to concede penalties.

"Ultimately our defence was tested more than it has been this year. Sale played with a lot of fluency in the last 20 minutes but we defended outstandingly well.

"I think we are playing good rugby at the moment both in attack and defence and we thoroughly deserved to win."

The man who most epitomises Worcester's fighting spirit at present is outside centre Dale Rasmussen. The Samoan had another colossal game as he made the break for the first try and also put in two try-saving tackles late in the game.

Rasmussen signed a new three-year contract last week and Brain believes that was one of the main factors behind his impressive contribution.

"Dale is usually outstanding in defence and he was but I thought in attack he was also dangerous and he really was important for us," said Brain. "He made the decision to stay. I think that cleared his mind and I think he was able to put out a performance like that."

The win was critical to Worcester's hopes of staying in the Premiership and Brain is pleased with the way his players' nerve is holding up.

"When you are at the bottom end of the table like we are, it all depends how you deal with pressure, individually and collectively," he said. "We dealt with it and are dealing with it quite well."

The win over Sale was once again built on forward dominance, particularly in the line-out.

"I thought our set-piece was good," said Brain. "There was one period in the second-half where I felt Andy Sheridan was starting to get a little bit on top in the scrum so I decided to bring (prop) Darren Morris on.

"It was a massive effort by everyone. We played good rugby.

"The character and the commitment of the team has never been in question but, on Friday night, you have got to give us credit for a little more than that."