Saracens coach Eddie Jones was pleased with his side's performance after they ground out a 26-12 victory over Northampton.
Coach pays tribute to tough Saints
Saracens coach Eddie Jones was pleased with his side's performance after they ground out a 26-12 victory over Northampton at Vicarage Road.
Jones' team bagged the points without hitting the heights of last week's 44-14 victory over Newcastle, but the Australian paid tribute to the newly promoted opposition.
"The application was excellent. We really stuck in in the second half," he said.
"We probably started the game a little bit too easy and got a little bit loose in the way we played but you've got to give a lot of credit to Northampton.
"They scrapped and fought hard at the tackle contest. Jim Mallinder is doing an excellent job with them and they are a side that fight very hard."
Jones also expressed satisfaction with the performances of forwards Michael Owen and Steve Borthwick.
"He's certainly displaying some of the form we saw with Wales a couple of years ago. He's a very talented player," he said of the former, before adding: "Borthwick just works hard and I'm really happy with his contribution. Both those guys have fitted in really well."
Mallinder rued the loss of replacement scrum-half Ben Foden and hooker Dylan Hartley to the sin-bin with six minutes of each other - both of which led to tries.
"Saracens put us under a lot of pressure and once you lose two men you really are struggling," he said. "We played quite well the first half. We knew coming down here is difficult.
"They have a big set of forwards, a good scrum and a good lineout so you have to fight for every single bit of possession you possibly can and we did that.
"You have to make the most of the opportunities, especially when you play away from home, and that's something we didn't do."
