Furbank says Saints are ready for a 'knockout rugby' run-in

Chris Boyd's team have reignited their bid for a top four finish in the Gallagher Premiership with crucial wins in their past two matches against Wasps and London Irish.

Those victories came off the back of a string of narrow defeats, and mean Saints are seventh in the table but within touching distance of Exeter in fourth place.

They trail the Chiefs by four points and also have a game in hand, but they also have to overhaul fifth-placed Sale and sixth-placed Gloucester, who are a point ahead of Saints having played a game less.

It means that with five matches left to play, full-back Furbank knows Saints simply have to keep winning - and cut out the inconsistency that has plagued their season.

"It is pretty much knockout rugby now, in a league situation," said the England man.

"We have struggled with consistency, but we realise that to go and get a top four place we need to be consistent from now on in."

And he added: "I am really excited, the back end of the season is what you build for.

"We are still in a position where we can go and make play-off rugby, we are still a European competiton that is knockout, so we are well and truly in two competitions.

"The ultimate goal is that we want to come away with silverware, but we will take it game by game.

"We don't want to put too much pressure on ourselves, but I think everyone is aware that to get into the top four we are going to have to come away with a massive amount of points.

"That's because there are going to be one or two teams around us who go on a winning run, like we saw with Quins last season.

"But we have to focus on ourselves, and the next four or five games."

Last weekend's 42-22 win over Irish saw Saints produce one of their best performances of the season as they thrashed a side that had gone into the game in great form.

Bristol come to Gardens sitting a lowly 10th in the Premiership table, but Furbank is wary of the threat Pat Lam's team possess and is expecting another action-packed encounter.

"Us and London Irish like the ball in play, and similarly us and Bristol like the ball in play, so we are well aware it is probably going to be the same again," said Furbank.

"Bristol will bring a little bit of a different defensive style, so we will have something different to deal with there, but the ball is going to be in play a lot, and it is going to be high tempo game.

"If we can put in a performance like we did last weekend, minus that first 20 minutes, then I think we will come out with a good result.

"We have got to be very good at what we do, we have to put our game on the park, and make as few errors as possible."

Saints were 36-20 winners at Bristol back in November, but Furbank believes that Bristol, who will have key players back from injury, cannot be underestimated.

"I guess you take bits from that game that we did well, and we want to bring that into this week," said Furbank.

"Bristol have got some big names back as well, so I think it will be a little bit of a different test.

"We have done our analysis, we have our game plan sorted, so now it is about going out and executing that."