Opposition view: Borthwick hails Tigers' 'guts and spirit' after win at Saints

Table-topping Tigers, who have now won all seven league games this season, ran in an eye-watering seven tries on a memorable afternoon for the men from Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

As for Saints, it was a sobering encounter in which little went right, aside from the fact they at least salvaged a try bonus point late on.

Tigers held off Saints despite going down to 13 men during the second half, and then pulled away again to rack up their biggest ever win at the Gardens.

And Borthwick said: “I’ll praise the players immensely – I thought their attitude was outstanding.

“I thought their work rate was outstanding, their effort brilliant, but what also do is say ‘how do we get better?’

“There’s plenty to get better at from out there – the last five minutes of the first half, we gave them a try and that then made the start of the second half difficult.

“We then made even more difficult for ourselves by going down to 13 men, but again, I’ll praise the players for the guts and the spirit they showed when we were down to 13 men.

“But we can’t be in that situation, so I’ve got to look at how I’m coaching and make sure I do that better, so that we don’t end up in that situation.

“I thought both teams played in a very physical manner, carried hard and played the game really hard.”