Belief was key to Saints’ securing win over Saracens, says Dingwall

The belief within the Northampton Saints squad was a key factor to triumphing in the Gallagher Premiership semi-final over Saracens, according to Fraser Dingwall. 

Friday’s 22-20 victory at a packed-out cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens ended a run of two successive play-off last-four losses as the men in Black, Green and Gold progressed to a first final in a decade on Saturday against Bath at Twickenham Stadium.

Centre Dingwall started all three of those knock-out games and tasted victory at the third time of asking as Saints backed up their table-topping season and now stand 80 minutes away from a first league title since 2014, when Dingwall was a 15-year-old watching on from the stands.

“If I reflect on the game honestly, I do not think we were at our best. We won that game because our defence was really good and our set-piece was really good and then we took our opportunities.

“We didn’t create as much as we normally would do, you can say fair enough to Sarries, but I don’t think our attack was that great, we were half a percent off in a few areas and you can put that down, maybe, to a week off.

“The good thing is, if the strongest part of our game, typically, didn’t function, the others area of our game then jumped up an extra few percent and that is what carried us through.”

“This year we have faced so many challenges and so many big occasions, that we have got the belief in this group around what we are capable of if we trust it. Trust what we are putting into every week in prep, and then every week on the pitch. As long as we trust that and function on above average performances, that’s how we get results.”

Burger Odendaal registered the home side’s only try of the encounter, the first time since the slender but crucial 16-14 victory away against Newcastle Falcons back in October 2023 that Saints have scored less than two tries in a game.

Dingwall pointed to the other areas of Saints’ performance that excelled to see them home, despite being outscored on tries by the 2022/23 champions.

“The biggest thing was we just stayed in the fight the whole game,” said Dingwall, who made his 127th Saints appearance on Friday. “The first 20 minutes of the game, Sarries came out and chucked pretty much everything at us and we rode that pretty well. So, if anything, that gave us a bit of confidence, we knew we could take what they were going to give us and we hadn’t really fired a shot yet.”