After demolishing Western Force last week, the Saints pack repeated the showing in the 66-0 thrashing of Treviso.

Euan Murray has been in top form and also a new streamlined Soane Tonga'uiha, with Paul Shields this week accompanying at hooker after Dylan Hartley played in the defeat at Cardiff on Friday night.

Mallinder said: "The scrum has been going well all pre-season really. Last week it went well against Western Force, but we are not going to read too much into any of it, next week is what we are here for."

The opening Premiership clash against Worcester will be a sterner test than Treviso, who were disappointing at Franklin's Gardens.

But the form of Tonga'uiha in the set-piece has been impressive. Forwards coach Dorian West has got to work on the Tongan's technique and head of performance Nick Johnston and his team have got the prop in top condition, with some three stone trimmed off him.

"Soane is improving," said Mallinder. "It is not just him, but all the team. We are improving, we improved last year and we are hoping to continue to improve, but it will take a little bit of time, because we have got quite a few new players to bed in.

"Soane has lost a lot of weight, he is one of the majority who has worked really, really hard in pre-season and he has lost a lot of body fat."

With Saints romping to victory Mallinder tested his side by taking Chris Ashton off so they played the last 10 minutes with 14 men after shipping three tries in Cardiff on Friday when Paul Diggin was sin-binned.

"We just wanted to see what we are like down to 14 men and see how we cope," said Mallinder.

"Over the whole game I thought the performance was good in not easy conditions with a bit of rain out there. We have had two dry games and it is always good to get some wet weather and have something a bit different. And I was pleased with how we handled it."