Dingwall feels Saints owe their supporters a big showing against Clermont

Defeats against Ealing Trailfinders and Leicester Tigers at cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens poured cold water on the flames in the Premiership Rugby Cup and Gallagher Premiership.

But now they have a chance to keep their European hopes burning bright this week as they welcome French giants Clermont for a massive knockout match.

Saints have been so strong at home in recent years, so what happened against Ealing and Leicester was tough to take, even though it is clear that team selection and absences had a big impact.

Now the black, green and gold will bid to put all of the pieces of their Gardens jigsaw back together as they look to find a way to topple a powerful Clermont team.

And Fraser Dingwall, who has been skippering Saints in the absence of George Furbank, wants to put on a show for the home fans to make up for recent setbacks.

Dingwall said: "Unfortunately the past two games here haven't been great and even more so after the Leicester game, we as a squad probably feel like we owe the supporters one at our home ground so they can see a bit more of a performance.

"I'm sure they'll get right behind us, as they always do, once we start putting a performance out there that actually looks a bit more like us.”

Dingwall scored a fine try last Friday but it was only enough to help Saints salvage two points from their trip to Sale Sharks as they fell just short of finding what would have been a hugely impressive bonus-point win on the road.

It may not have been the result Phil Dowson’s men wanted, but at least it was the right kind of response seven days after the sobering 33-0 loss to Tigers.

"It was a great reaction, we looked way more like us, got way more of the elements of a performance that we would like on the pitch, but unfortunately it was short,” Dingwall said.

"It's about how we can bring that same level of intent to perform and the simple things onto the pitch but also dial up the execution so we don't lose games essentially.

"There was an extra week of training together, which always helps.

"In the Leicester game, there were lots of elements that didn't look like us. I don't think we moved that well both in attack and defence and we were probably a bit slower in how we reacted to things.

"So we didn't have the opportunity to go and attack or go and defend aggressively.

"The week building into Sale was about getting back to that, relieving a bit of the pressure from the squad and seeing us go out and have a good go at it to produce a bit more of a performance.

"You saw that there was a lot more that looked like the Saints side rather than clunky and very fragmented.”

Saints were far from clunky and fragmented during the pool stages of this season’s Champions Cup as they again finished top of the table.

And now they want to make all that hard work count this week.

"We haven't really touched on the fact that it's a huge game all that much because everyone's aware that a European knockout is always big,” Dingwall said.

"We haven't actually tried to push that hard (on how big the game is), it's more around how excited we can be for the opportunity we've got.

"We worked really hard in the group stages to give ourselves the opportunity to have a last-16 tie at home so to then play Clermont, who we haven't played for a number of years – and it will be the first time a lot of the lads have played against those guys - just sets itself up to be a really cool, exciting prospect.

"That hopefully drives a lot of the mental side of it to get a good performance out there.”

Saints have lost five of their six games against Clermont, with Dingwall having experienced how tough an opposition they can be.

"I've played them a couple of times,” the England centre said.

"I've played them out there at their stadium, which was very fun. It was a very high-scoring game from memory, but they had a lot of talent within their backs and back row at the time, much like they do now.

"I've got some cool memories and I know their stadium (Stade Marcel-Michelin) is a great place to play, there's always the band playing, it's right on top of you and it was a very high-scoring game when I played there.”

So what is Dingwall expecting from this version of Clermont on Friday night?

"There's the unknown part because you haven't played against a lot of the players, and then it tends to be two contrasting styles, just because of the way the leagues operate,” Dingwall said.

"We're expecting them to be very physical and then move the ball to their very talented backs.

"Our game probably operates a lot more around linking the whole thing together as a team so it can be quite contrasting.

"But it's just cool to play in European games.

"When you're a young boy wanting to get involved in this club, these are the games you want to play in.”

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