THE top six will have to wait another year if Wasps don’t win at winless Worcester tonight.

Mathematically it will still be possible, but people only talk about the maths when the reality is saying something they don’t want to hear.

Five defeats in a row in all competitions have turned Wasps from top six thoroughbreds to dark horses and while some of their performances in that run have actually been pretty good, Dai Young knows there is no hiding place tonight.

He said: “If you want to be in the top six, you’ve got to go away to the bottom team and win, no matter who they are. That’s the reality. If you can’t go to the bottom side and win you have ask yourself the question, are you really a top six team?”

Unfortunately for Wasps, Worcester have put all their eggs in this particular basket.

They haven’t won all season and look dead and buried, but a victory against Wasps followed by another one against Newcastle next weekend and suddenly Dean Ryan’s men have something to chase again.

It all hinges on beating Wasps though, and the Warriors are going all in at Sixways tonight.

Young said: “I’ll be totally honest, I was hoping they’d get a win before we went there. It would have taken a bit of pressure off us. But they’ve been unlucky. In a lot of games they’ve been in there right at the end and it’s just slipped away from them.

“But there has been a lot of talk that if they’re going to stay in the league this is a game they have to win and they’ve had two weeks to sharpen their teeth.

“So we know it’s going to be a real scrap and we’re going to have roll our sleeves up and show how much we want it, because make no bones about it, they’ll want it.

“The talk is if they beat us and then beat Newcastle they’re in with a chance.

“But while everyone keeps talking about how big it is for them, it’s not any smaller for us.

“You couldn’t say the top was gone if we lost, but we’d have to pull out some big results.”

To make up ground on Sale Wasps will probably have to do that anyway – taking the scalp of either Saracens, Leicester or Northampton alongside victories over Worcester, Gloucester and Newcastle.

Young said: “Every game is massive now. That’s one thing I’ve learned in the Premiership.

“You certainly can’t target games and let one or two go because you’ve got a big one in three weeks. Everyone is massive.

“We’ve got to get that extra ten per cent from somewhere.

“If we can be ten per cent better in everything we do that should be enough to turn these losses into wins.

“We’re all looking forward to it. We’re confident we can turn it around.”