'I was ecstatic' - Pater reflects on his match-winning moment for Saints

The 19-year-old showed no signs of nerves, despite the clock ticking down as he stepped up and notched the crucial two points from in front of the terrace at a sold-out cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

It meant Saints secured a thrilling 35-33 victory, coming back from 12 points down with just six minutes to go.

And when asked about his ice-cool conversion, Pater said: "It was tight with time with the clock coming up to 80 so I was asking our S&C 'do I wait, do I wait?' and then I looked and I saw five seconds, but luckily I was already in position so I did my process and was lucky enough to get it.

"Those are the ones where you can overthink it. It’s the same with high balls – if you overthink it, it's way harder than it is, so it's a lot easier when it's all instinct.

"It (the atmosphere) was unbelievable, especially when we scored in that corner - it sounded like we'd won it.

"I was ecstatic so when it went through I was even happier.

"I just turned and all the boys were on top of me so it was an unbelievable feeling."

George Hendy came off the bench with 16 minutes remaining and helped to turn the game in Saints' favour.

The replacement full-back delivered a stunning try assist for Rory Hutchinson before bagging a sensational solo score that set up Pater's chance to seal the win.

"Hendy was unbelievable," Pater said. "He came on and he was a game-changer.

"Hendy had us under the sticks (after Saracens went 33-21 up) with 15 of us in the circle, saying 'let's have some belief'.

"We had a scrum set and Hendy's magic.

"He finished it off from 80 metres. I can claim an offload but he still did the rest of the hard work.

"He's just unbelievable in terms of his gym stats, he's quick, he's big, he's literally what you want as a rugby player and he's so good."

Pater has grown up as a full-back but Saints have given him the keys to No.10 on a couple of occasions in the PREM Rugby Cup.

And he says working on his kicking is one of his aims.

"I do quite a lot (of kicking) in the week but this week I was actually kind of limited because the pitch was covered so I was out on the training pitch.

"I do quite a lot and it's another skill I want to get in my range."

Pater wasn't the only teenager in the Saints side as 17-year-old Academy back row forward Jack Lewis started for the first time and shone.

"He just takes no steps backwards," Pater said.

"I think he's still 17 and he just goes forward.

"He's an animal."

Saints were behind on a number of occasions against Saracens, but they eventually got over the line in truly dramatic fashion.

"It was a really frustrating game for us, we lost the ball too many times and we just weren't ball tough enough," England Under-20s ace Pater said.

"It wasn't our finest performance but to still get a win out of it - I'm very happy.

"We knew it was going to be a big clash and we were excited about playing against what they had.

"There was nothing to lose really, playing against a PREM standard side so I'm very happy."

Saints fed off the energy of the sell-out crowd during their late comeback.

And Pater said: "It's unbelievable fun. When we found out it was sold out, literally 10 minutes before kick-off, we were elated.

"To get sold-out PREM Cup games, we know how much the support means because other clubs aren't getting as many followers as we do.

"We cherish it every time we're at Franklin's Gardens.

"We know the game didn't mean as much in the scheme of things, but we had to perform in front of all our fans."