Heading to Twickenham to open their season against Saracens as part of the London Double Header, Saints' slow start cost them as the double European Champions stormed to a large first half lead that Saints could not catch.
Club captain Dylan Hartley was honest in his analysis of the game, but said that an opening loss like that is something that humbles the team and will drive them forward as they prepare to host Leicester Tigers at Franklin's Gardens next weekend.
"It was a slow start from us," Hartley commented to SaintsTV after the game yesterday.
"You can't give a Championship winning side like Saracens a 40-point head start. We were playing catch-up from there in the second half."
"There was a lot of frustration at half time. Obviously Jim speaks, a few of the onfield leaders speak. Look, I think the second half was better, we can take some positives from that.
"But we were chasing four tries in that second half and ultimately with a minute to go, we cough up possession five metres out and we can't take anything from the game. So there's huge frustration from that.
"It's humbling. It certainly keeps you grounded and it shows that we're a long way off where we need to be. We had a fantastic preseason, everyone was positive going into this game but it shows the level we need to be at to compete and we were a long way off today.
"How you start the game is so important, you can't give a team 40 minutes head start or 40 odd points. There are things to be looked at as to why we had such a slow start and that's what we'll do over the weekend and build into Leicester next week.
"The nature of this league is that you've always got another big game around the corner and that' exactly what we've got. Obviously we're playing at home and we need to put a few things in place and play a proud game at home because certainly today was too slow and Leicester are a quality side as well.
"Like I said, we've got things to work on, it's a short turn around, it's another big can but we'll be up for it at home."
