Saints forward Munga: "I don't think I'm going to be the next Courtney Lawes any time soon!"

Munga started in the Northampton six shirt for the first time as he skippered the black, green and gold against Newcastle Red Bulls at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

And though the result didn't go the way he and his team-mates wanted - Saints were beaten 31-14 in the PREM Rugby Cup clash - he enjoyed the new experience of lining up as a flanker.

"I don't think I'm going to be the next Courtney Lawes any time soon, but six was a welcome change and it was probably a bit quicker on the legs," said Munga, who produced a performance that saw him secure two lineout steals and disrupt Newcastle on a few occasions.

"I got myself back in the (second) row at some point and felt back at home."

It was only a second appearance of the season for Munga, whose start to the campaign had been disrupted by injury.

"It's been a pretty disjoined start to the season and some boys have had it worse, with Furbs (George Furbank) and Sleights (Ollie Sleightholme), who came back in this game," Munga said.

"I got injured just after Glasgow in pre-season, was on the sidelines for a while, came back (as a replacement in the win against Harlequins) a couple of weeks ago, had a week off and now I'm back again.

"I'm looking forward to getting some momentum and trying to perform, but I'm frustrated we couldn't come away with a win at the weekend."

Saints were unbeaten going into last weekend's clash with Newcastle, but they saw a 14-5 half-time lead slip away as their youthful team were eventually outgunned by the Red Bulls' extra experience.

"It's pretty frustrating," Munga said. "We let the game slip away from us.

"It felt like at the start we were pretty in control even though we had to defend for long periods and we probably touched the ball for about 20 or 25 minutes.

"We went out in the second half and wanted to put a marker down but unfortunately we weren't able to do that and the game sort of got away from us.

"It felt like it was in our control but that's the way it goes sometimes.

"At the end of the day, we pride ourselves on being a squad and a club where people can slot in wherever.

"We had TJ (Tom James) come in at 10 and he's obviously a really good, experienced player and boys performed when they needed to, but as a collective we let it slip away from us.

"It was frustrating but we've got an opportunity to come in and look at where it didn't go right.

"We don't like to lose at home in a competition which is full of opportunities for lads to put a marker down, but we didn't do that on this occasion."

Next up for Saints is a PREM Rugby Cup pool stage game at Leicester Tigers on Friday night (kick-off 7.30pm).

And Munga said: "Leicester is always going to be an important game for us because it's an East Midlands derby and it doesn't matter what competition we play them in.

"We've just got to look at where we didn't get things quite right at the weekend and come in with an attitude to improve.

"If we let games get away from us against quality sides like Newcastle then we're not going to win so hopefully we can improve this week."