Chick insistent Saints still have ‘room for growth’ despite Tigers win

Northampton Saints matchday captain Callum Chick insists that the men in Black, Green and Gold have more to give despite victory over East Midlands’ rivals Leicester Tigers on Derby Weekend. 

Saints sit second and unbeaten after three rounds of Gallagher PREM action this term following Saturday afternoon’s 32-26 victory against Tigers at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens.

A second-half brace from Anthony Belleau sealed the deal for Saints in a fixture where the lead exchanged hands ten times.

“We had little lulls in there,” said Chick. “But we managed to drag back momentum as opposed to in the previous two weeks, when we struggled to get it back.

“We’ve hardly played together, and it’s our first week with a lot of boys back in. At half-time, we spoke about looking after the ball, being tough and making sure, after three or four phases, that we give ourselves good opportunities.

“It was about keeping the ball for that amount of time and not giving them cheap turnovers to attack us on.”

After two dramatic opening rounds of the PREM, it was a much more settled second-half performance from the men in Black, Green and Gold as they built a lead in the final quarter that they resolutely defended through to the final whistle.

“The full squad were awesome,” Chick continued. “The boys who started did well, and then the boys who came off the bench had a huge impact.

“Guys like Henry Pollock, Anthony Belleau, Luke Green, Craig Wright, they all had a huge impact on the game, and that’s what you want from your subs.

“That 60-minute mark when boys start to fall off and get tired, it’s important to bring that energy, and we showed that in the last 20 minutes. We got over that one-score game and tried to control it.

“The scrum resets obviously helped us, but they’re always going to be messy, these games, because there’s so much emotion and history around it. We knew it would always be close, so to come out with a win, we’re pretty happy.”