Saints can't wait to take on 'one of the best around', says Mitchell

The England star was named man of the match as the black, green and gold beat Castres 51-16 to book an Investec Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.

Saints were beaten 20-17 by Leinster at Croke Park at the same stage last season, so Mitchell and Co will be bidding to turn the tables on the Irish giants next month.

"We can't wait!" Mitchell said.

"These are the big games you want to play in, the semi-finals, especially against a team like Leinster with their quality, they're one of the best around.

"We've got a couple of games in the Premiership first but then we'll be looking forward to that."

Saints took the game away from Castres during the second half on Saturday, with Mitchell masterminding a couple of tries for Henry Pollock.

And the scrum-half said: "We're very pleased.

"It's been an inconsistent season for us but we seem to go pretty well in Europe and we're very happy to get to another semi-final.

"We tried to play fast, we tried to be physical and we try to move the opposition around and score tries.

"We found a good balance and 51 points scored shows that.

"We're very pleased but there are a few things to work on as well."

Saints have recovered well from the humbling 33-0 loss at home to Leicester Tigers last month, narrowly losing at Sale Sharks the week after before beating Clermont Auvergne and Castres to reach the Champions Cup final four.

"We needed a bit of ownership on the pitch - it can't always come from the coaches," Mitchell said.

"We're the ones who are playing at the end of the day so we need to look at ourselves, try to fix a few things and we did that against Castres so we're in a good place."