Saints were 19-0 down inside the first 11 minutes and although they fought back to 19-13, the Saints director of rugby was left to rue the disastrous start.

"I'm gutted really. In the first 15 minutes we were terrible," he said.

"To concede three tries like that is very disappointing and it was always going to be a battle to come back from that."

Mallinder had been forced to make two late changes, with key second-rower Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe having to return home to Argentina because of a family problem and centre Jon Clarke failing a fitness test.

But he said: "We're not going to blame that for our performance."

International calls had also deprived him of Scotland's Euan Murray and Sean Lamont, England's replacement hooker Dylan Hartley and utility back Ben Foden, on standby duty with Martin Johnson's squad.

Mallinder added: "It's proved we are a long way from where we want to be in terms of our squad. We've got to learn lessons from today."