The Saints take on fellow Round 1 winners Exeter Chiefs at Franklin's Gardens, with director of rugby Jim Mallinder saying that his team needs to take a step up from last weekend's performance at Kingsholm.
"It's vital that we get off to a good start at home," the Saints boss said. "Last weekend at Gloucester we got a good away win and now we have to build on that on Sunday afternoon.
"At times we played well and scored three good tries, but in the last 10 minutes we had to dig deep as well. We shouldn't have got ourselves in that position in the first place, but the team spirit was fantastic, we held our defensive patterns and held them out.
"So we know we have to build on both our attack and defence this weekend.
"Exeter are a quality side, as they have shown for the last couple of seasons. The players work hard for each other and they played well in their win over Sale last Saturday.
"It's going to be a big game and a tough game, but it is one that we are looking forward to."
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NORTHAMPTON SAINTS TEAM TO PLAY EXETER
Aviva Premiership Rugby Round 2
Franklin's Gardens
Sunday, September 9th, 2012
Kick off 3:00pm
15 Ben FODEN
14 Ken PISI
13 George PISI
12 Dom WALDOUCK
11 Vasily ARTEMYEV
10 Ryan LAMB
9 Lee DICKSON
1 Soane TONGA'UIHA
2 Dylan HARTLEY (capt)
3 Brian MUJATI
4 Samu MANOA
5 Christian DAY
7 Tom WOOD
8 GJ VAN VELZE
Replacements
16 Mike HAYWOOD
17 Alex WALLER
18 Tom MERCEY
19 Mark SORENSON
20 Rhys OAKLEY
21 Martin ROBERTS
22 Stephen MYLER
