Vickers was given 20 minutes against the Catalans and helped the Saints win a bonus point and complete the first nilling of the French champions in their Heineken Cup history.

Twenty-four hours on, and given a bit of time to reflect on the experience, the Senior Academy tight-head prop - who only turned 21 just before Christmas - was honest in the assessment of his own performance.

"I hadn't played in a while, so it was good to get some game time against Perpignan, who are a very strong side as we found out in France," he said. "It was a massive challenge for me. To be honest it could have gone better. Brian, Soane and Dylan had done very well. The scrum was solid and we were getting penalties. But they went hard at me and on reflection it was a big learning curve for a young player against Perpignan.

"The pace of the game was a big step up. Perpignan were looking to score tries and it was very fast. This means you have to communicate a lot in defence to cope with the pace.

"The Heineken Cup is a big stepping stone and just to be involved for a massive game like Munster this week would be great. Just being around a Heineken Cup atmosphere is great, especially looking back to where I was a year ago. It's great to be playing in the premier competition in the world.

"I tend at half-time to try and get a steer from the guy on the tight-head side, be it Brian or Soane, on what it's like in there. Mostly I try to keep a cool head on the sidelines and work out what I can do if I go on and how I can affect the game, mostly in the tight but in defence and attack as well."

On Sunday Vickers was up against a front row that included veteran Tongan international Kisi Pulu and Heineken Cup regular Jerome Schuster. He said that he received plenty of encouragement from the Saints coaches ahead of being given another first team appearance.

"I've been playing a lot during the year against opponents who have been around a similar age or ability to me and I think I've been doing well," he said. "The coaches told me that it would be interesting to see how I'd go against more experienced opponents. It was another big learning curve and I hope it will benefit me in the future."

Less then 24 hours later Vickers was back in action against Saracens. The encounter may not have had the scoring of the September match-up at Bramley Road, but it had the same breathless finish thanks to a late Saracens try that put them within a score.

"They scored in the end but the work rate was superb from our boys," Vickers said. "They put their bodies on the line in defence, everyone enjoys playing with each other in the Wanderers and pushing each other to get in the first team spot. Saracens on paper were good, a similar outfit to ourselves, but we beat them down there and we're now the only team to have beaten them home and away, which is really big."

Jon Vickers is a member of the Saints Senior Academy, sponsored by LIO. For more information visit www.logicalfrance.com