I WAS really pleased with the win over Northampton Saints on Friday night and we have now won two out of three on home soil.

We only narrowly missed out on the four points when Harlequins came to Sixways too and it is important for us to keep the home run going for as long as possible — that will be vital to us being successful this season.

It was unusual for us not to make any replacements during the whole match, but it was great we showed that, as a 15, everyone is fit enough to play for the whole 80 minutes.

Substitutions are sometimes forced upon you, but there was no-one in the team struggling or slacking off towards the end of the game. That said, I bet Dave (Tevita Taumoepeau) slept well after the match — he’ll probably want four weeks off now!

Also, I thought Chris Jones had a really good game at number eight — he constantly offered himself up to carry the ball and showed he can be a dangerous runner. It was great that he fitted in so well as he had big boots to fill replacing Kai Horstmann.

Chris also gave us good options in the line-out, which worked a lot better against Saints than it did when we lost to Quins.

I think Saints are clearly lacking a bit of confidence at the moment and that can be a tough scenario to be in. They were branded as being a weakened team when they lost players to the Six Nations last year and that has stuck in their mentality. That can be a difficult situation, but their mentality will change when they get their players back from New Zealand.

It’s a shame to see them going through difficulties, but I’m sure it will be a different game when we meet at Franklin’s Gardens.

We travel to London Irish on Sunday and they have been a bit up and down so far this season — it depends which Irish team we come up against.

They have always been an incredible attacking team, who like to run at you from anywhere, but, with our defence functioning so well, it will be good to tie them down and frustrate them.

Teams have scored points against Irish this season, so hopefully we can score a few too. If we keep playing like we did against Saints, the tries will definitely come — it is up to us to start putting away the half-chances we are creating.

Elsewhere, it has been great to watch Aleki Lutui playing for Tonga in the World Cup and doing what he does for us on the international stage. It is nice to know he will be coming back soon to benefit our front row — having Aleki back will be a great selection headache for Richard Hill to have.

I’ve also watched Ravai Fatiaki playing for Fiji and he looks like a very physical player, who will give Hilly even more options at centre.