The Saints started slowly at Franklin’s Gardens, but skipper Lee Dickson was full of praise for the way they reacted either side of the break to go back into the Aviva Premiership’s top four.
Quickfire scores for Tom Collins and Ken Pisi took the hosts into a lead that would prove unassailable, TP Man of the Match Mikey Haywood having got the ball rolling shortly before half-time.
JJ Hanrahan added the bonus point score late on and while Dickson’s own scoring run of five tries in four games finally ended, his only thoughts were on the collective effort that brought a maximum.
“I had a couple of goes, but got held up and then had absolutely no pace – luckily TC was there to round it off!” he joked.
“As long as someone is scoring and we keep on winning though I couldn’t care less. The boys showed some good mettle in that second half and to get the bonus point as well was brilliant.
“It [the start of the second half] was huge for us. We were a little bit annoyed at half-time as our discipline was shocking. You can’t afford to give that many penalties away in the Premiership, especially to a side like Sale and they punished us.
“But fair play to the boys. We composed ourselves at the break and came out firing.
“Now the big challenges keep coming. Nothing changes – the next four or five weeks are huge for us and we have to make sure we keep winning, stay the right side of that top four and hopefully we’ll hit our straps come the playoffs.”
