Furbank eyes unbeaten run as Saints bid to book play-off place

George Furbank feels Saints can only afford one more defeat if they are to achieve their goal of making the top four.
George FurbankGeorge Furbank
George Furbank

And the England full-back certainly doesn't want it to come at Welford Road on Saturday afternoon.

Saints, who are currently four points off fourth, have six regular-season games to play in the Gallagher Premiership.

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The first of those comes against their local rivals this weekend.

And Furbank said: "We know now that we've got a run-in where we probably need to win all but one of our games to make the top four.

"We're relying on teams above us to lose some games as well for that to happen so for us to have the best chance of making the top four, we want to go on an unbeaten run to the end of the season.

"We've spoken about the target of top four and that's clearly in everyone's mind with the position we're in at the moment in the league.

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"We all have the goal of playing play-off rugby so it's not something we need to speak about loads because everyone knows it's the goal."

Furbank returned to the team to help Saints see off London Irish in a six-try 44-26 success at Franklin's Gardens last weekend.

But boss Chris Boyd insisted Saints will 'get murdered' by Leicester if they replicate that level of performance this Saturday - and Furbank agrees with his boss.

"We played really well, we attacked well for most parts," Furbank said.

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"Obviously we don't want to be conceding four tries every game because you're not going to win every game that way, but our attack has been on fire the past few weeks if you look at the points we've scored so we've got a real emphasis on defence this week.

"I agree with Boydy's point - we can't be that sloppy in that many areas of our game and we can't give Leicester that many opportunities because they will take them and we can't always bank on scoring 40 or 50 points a game."

Leicester suffered an agonising late defeat at Bath last time out, but the Tigers have been a team on the up under boss Steve Borthwick.

Borthwick's men are currently eighth, eight points behind fifth-placed Saints.

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And Furbank said: "They are an improving team, they're going really well.

"They kick a lot but they've clearly got a game plan that's working for them, they've got a big pack and they rely on their set piece to get go-forward.

"They've got two really good playmakers, (George) Ford and (Ben) Youngs, who can take them around the park.

"I've only been into a couple of camps so I don't know them well enough to speak to them before games.

"It will be a good challenge for all of us."

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