Across the fixture list, from Northampton versus Harlequins on Friday to Leicester versus Bath and Wasps-Exeter on Sunday, there is something on every game this weekend. How close are Quins to their best? Have Gloucester really turned the corner after a couple of wins and decent performances by their pack over Christmas? And where do resurgent Bath and slightly off-colour Leicester really stand?

For most it has been a topsy-turvy season, the only consistency at the top and bottom of the table; Saracens and Northampton well clear of the chasing pack at the top, us – Worcester – 10 points adrift at the bottom and 3pm on Saturday at the Madejski Stadium, Reading, home of London Irish, another obvious focus for the weekend.

You cannot argue with that. Going into the second half of the season with only three points to your name is a difficult fact to contradict and anything I might say about feeling in a good place is obviously going to sound a bit hollow. Anyway here goes.

Look at Northampton and Harlequins, currently second and fourth in the table, and you could argue they are a product of relegation, not that I want to wish it on anyone, especially Worcester. But in many respects the cultural changes that laid the foundation for the success both sides are currently having were laid in the haven of relegation.

Likewise, Exeter got the infrastructure right when they were in the Championship and have refined it, bit by bit, during their three years in the Premiership. There is much to admire.

However, the board here at Worcester drew a line in the sand at the end of last season and decided not to wait; they decided that change was needed immediately and if it had to happen under the week-by-week scrutiny of the Premiership, then so be it. Our position in the league can be/should be seen as the product of that decision – but it does not mean that as director of rugby I am totally unhappy .

Sure, it is a work in progress but we are a vastly different squad from the dysfunctional unit that started the season believing a Premiership side was purely the product of its wage bill and that a little bit of chequebook magic could do the trick again as it had done in the past.

Now no one believes a Chris Latham or a Dan Carter is going to walk through the door – if there is anyone who is going to get us out of trouble, it is going to be the guys who are already here.

So far so good but I'm not going to pretend you change a culture by flicking a switch. First we had to learn how to change under pressure and initially it was the desire to improve that made things worse. There were 16 changes in personnel in the summer and when we arrived and started heaping on fresh demands, it simply accentuated the difficulties and further held us back.

Add the loss of some guys who we believed were going to be crucial and a lack of discipline, which the figures suggest has changed in a big way, and early in the season came the defeats at home to both Newcastle and London Irish – results that immediately heaped on the pressure, which is with us today.

That has changed but with it come fresh challenges. We are now a team that knows it is not going to blow away top sides – we are not going to be four tries up by half-time – but week on week we are competitive.

Biarritz in the Amlin we could and probably should have beaten both home and away but we are now in games to the end; within a score either way going into the last quarter. The trick now is to learn to manage those last 20 minutes and the rate at which the squad are learning is remarkable. What they need now is some reward for their success. There is a time when congratulations for effort and heart are not enough.

The culture at Worcester has changed. Guys now look forward to hard work rather than think of it as punishment, the penalty count against us week on week is dropping, even if the stats do not – we would say – accurately reflect our improved discipline but we now need a couple of wins and, while there will be obvious emphasis on Saturday in Reading, we regard the following four weeks with equal importance, Europe and the LV Cup offering more opportunities to move on.

The key now is to throw some of the scrutiny and pressure that we have been under on to someone else. We have coped for half a season and we know we are going to have to cope for another 11 weeks, 80 minutes a game. But we know we are up to it; the question will be, can another side cope as we have done.

A couple of wins will give us the answer. Then we will see whether I am being overoptimistic in saying we are, or could be, in a good place.