Balancing fun with hard work proves to be recipe for success at Saints

The black, green and gold delivered an astonishing display with ball in hand last Friday, blitzing Bristol Bears in a 14-try demolition job at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

The 94-33 victory saw Saints score more points than they ever had in a Gallagher PREM game, and the overall points total in the match was the highest in the league's history.

And when it was put to Vesty that it looked like his side were loving their work against the Bears, Vesty replied: “Fun is really important because we're chasing around a rugby ball. It's not world peace or anything like that.

“We're conscious of having a fun environment, we think people who have fun and enjoy each other's company feel more relaxed, play better, feel more connected and I honestly think you can see it.

“Having said that, it's not always fun. There are days when it's tough, there are days when it's hard work and we are very hard working.

“You see a lot of the fun stuff and people talk about that, but we work very hard, we are very physical, we do a lot of physical work and then it's all wrapped up in fun.”

When asked what impressed him most about Saints' showing against Bristol, Vesty said: “The best bit was how connected we were as a team.

“The backline, certainly in that first half, were very connected, talking to each other, knowing what we want to do and I thought that was impressive.

“We got hurt in the previous week (in the 41-17 loss at Leicester Tigers) and the way we bounced back from that in training into the game on Friday, we were definitely a little bit salty all week and I think that showed on the pitch.”

Saints racked up a whopping 61 points by the break against Bristol.

So what were the messages in the home dressing room at half-time?

“Fundamentally what we try to do, is it's all about us, it's not about the crowd, it's not about the scoreline, it's not about any of the context there is on the pitch,” Vesty said.

“So that was a great example of it because, yes, we've scored 61 points, but does it look the same in the second half? There's your challenge.

“Some of the boys stepped up and wanted to take the lead on that. They pushed it and it's a great place to be.”

PREM table-toppers Saints now have this weekend off before returning to action with a home game against Gloucester on May 30.

“We'll look at the Bristol game and see what we were good at,” Vesty said.

“We'll see what we've been good at over the past few months, we'll see what we're not so good at and what we need to work at.

“There's a few areas that I 100 per cent know we're going to have to be better at in closer games – and I think we all know that, so we'll be going hard at those.”