Iyogun insists Saints won't underestimate Newcastle at Kingston Park

Phil Dowson’s men make the long trip north to take on a Red Bulls side who have lost each of their first three Gallagher PREM games.

Newcastle were beaten 57-5 at Sale Sharks last Friday, a day before Saints continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 32-26 success against Leicester Tigers.

But though his side are on a high, Saints loosehead prop Iyogun knows there is no room for complacency at Kingston Park.

"To take 13 points from 15 is a very good start," Iyogun said.

"After the first game (the 33-33 draw with Exeter Chiefs), we challenged ourselves to be better - and I think we have been.

"But the game against Newcastle this week is not one we're going to underestimate.

"We want to go out there and put in a performance that we know we can."

Reflecting on the win against Leicester at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens, Iyogun said: "It was an awesome result and a great game to be involved in.

"Good teams win when it's tough and when it's ugly as well. In the last couple of games, you can see they have been tight matches and on a knife edge so it's just pleasing to get the result.

"From a penalty point of view, we were quite poor in some areas, but it's credit to the boys for sticking in there and getting the result in the end."

Iyogun felt Saints fronted up against Tigers.

He said: "Looking at the season and going back to what the nature of the game is, from a set piece point of view we want to be really solid and provide a platform for our backs to go and do their work.

"On Saturday, we were a bit behind and going forward it's something we can really improve on.

"(New Saints scrum coach) Jaco (Pienaar) has been awesome in terms of what he's brought in, stripping it back and going back to the fundamentals.

"When you can be lower in the scrum, you can then be powerful and apply pressure to the opposition.

"We're not naive and we know the derby is based on set piece. We know lineout, maul, scrum wins games for you and we did that very well to give our backs a platform to go to work."

Saints had to survive some nervy moments late on against Leicester.

"It's credit to the coaches where they put us in situations in training where we're getting tough scenarios," Iyogun said.

"It's credit to the players in terms of having that experience to not panic and go through our process.

"When you're in there, you just focus on your process.

"The moment you feel the stress is when you crack so you just go in there and do your job - that's all you need."