Saints on a 'victorious' track
Director of Rugby Jim Mallinder insisted Northampton Saints are right on track, after victory over Harlequins in front of a sold out Twickenham left the reigning champions top of the Premiership pile heading into 2015.
This past weekend's Round 11 marked the halfway stage of the regular season and although one of the pace setters for the campaign so far, Saints still needed to produce the goods against Quins after Bath's victory over Exeter Chiefs earlier during the round temporarily knocked them off top.
And while falling behind to George Lowe's early try, scores from Samu Manoa, George North and Kahn Fotuali'i ensured a 30-25 win.
Mallinder said: "Bath are playing really well but we are only halfway through the season.
"However we are where we want to be as it is important that we finish in the top two.
"We were put under a lot of pressure as Quins played really well.
"They kept their patience and caused us problems when they moved the ball wide but I didn't think we defended particularly well.
"In the second half we got a good grip on the game through our set-piece.
"We didn't play particularly well but when you are away from home, you don't have to play too much rugby to get the result and it was a massive positive for us to get the win."
