Litchfield making up for lost time as he continues to shine for Saints

The centre has been in fantastic form of late, and he earned the man of the match award on Saturday after a bulldozing display in the 35-28 Gallagher PREM win at Exeter Chiefs.

Litchfield has now started 14 matches for Saints this season, coming off the bench in a further four games.

That is a sizeable tally of appearances, especially when you consider he was sidelined between November and February due to a hamstring injury sustained against Bristol Bears.

And when asked what the secret is behind his strong set of recent performances, Litchfield said: "Coming back from injury, I really missed it.

"It was my longest lay-off I've had so I was itching to get going again and when the team's playing well it's easy to slot in and do your thing."

Litchfield, who is celebrating his 24th birthday today (Monday), was named man of the match in the PREM for the first time for Saints on Saturday.

And he said: "It's my first one and I'm really chuffed with it, very happy.

"But the win is the most important part."

Saints secured the victory at Sandy Park thanks to a last-gasp try from Fin Smith.

"It was pretty good to get over the line," Litchfield said.

"Obviously we've drawn and lost against Exeter this season so we really wanted to get a win and right some wrongs from the previous week (at Bath).

"We're very happy with the performance.

"It's a difficult place to come and a difficult team to play against but we knew if we stayed in it, we'd have a chance.

"It was just about getting through those frustrating parts and we knew we'd get something at the end of it.

"We've always got the belief that we can get the result.

"We feel like we can score from anywhere so if we keep the ball and get our attack on the pitch then we feel we can put teams away."

Litchfield managed to solider on despite taking a knock during the game at Exeter.

He explained: "I just got a bang on the arm, a dead arm, but I padded it up and managed to soldier on through."

Saints are now getting set to face Bath again this weekend, having suffered a heartbreaking 43-41 Investec Champions Cup quarter-final defeat at The Rec a couple of weeks ago.

"On the back of losing against Bath, we wanted to get up for the game at Exeter and put in a good performance away from home," Litchfield said.

"Obviously we've got Bath again this week so it stands us in good stead."