Scott-Young ready to step up at No.8 for Saints

Augustus has been ruled out for at least a month due to needing surgery on a bicep injury sustained in training.

It’s a big blow for Saints, who are already without skipper Lewis Ludlam, a strong contender to play at No.8, as he is at the Rugby World Cup with England.

Sam Graham was also missing on Saturday but he is expected to recover from a muscle injury in time for the Gallagher Premiership opener at Sale Sharks on October 15.

It all meant Scott-Young was the man thrust into the No.8 role in the thrilling 43-42 Premiership Rugby Cup win against Bath.

And it was something the Australian savoured, having played in the position during the early part of his career.

"It was exciting," Scott-Young said.

"I played a lot of eight in Under-20s back in Queensland and I love it because you get your hands on the ball a bit more, catching those kick-offs and running into a brick wall.

"But it's what I love, running with the ball, and I really enjoyed it.

"I'm happy to play wherever on the field.

"It was heaps of fun."

Saints really struggled during the first half against Bath and the concession of a try early in the second half meant the home side were 42-19 down.

But the black, green and gold came roaring back, with Tommy Freeman's magical hat-trick try 10 minutes from time helping them to complete a stunning comeback.

However, there was not much celebrating at full-time as Saints instead preferred to focus on what went wrong during the formative stages of the match.

"It was a similar story to the previous weekend (when Saints lost 39-38 at Bristol Bears)," Scott-Young said.

"It was a to-and-fro game, an exciting ending, each team in it until the death but speaking to the coaches, we've made a decision that it's been our identity in the past but we want to change that narrative.

"We don't want to be the team that for the first 30 or 40 minutes just doesn't show up, constantly loses the physical battle and then second half we suddenly pull our finger out and score 40 points.

"It's definitely been a pattern in the past but something we're looking forward to changing, especially on the defensive side of things."

"Defence, for me, there is a technique to it, but within that technique there is a mentality. Some people have it and some don't.

"There are a few guys in the team who probably take some warming up to get in that really physical space.

"We have seen some improvement compared to last year but we need to be a lot more consistent.

"As we saw on Saturday, we're pretty much going to cost ourselves the game if we're trailing by 20 points in the first 20 minutes.

"We've definitely got some soul-searching to do on that front."

The Saints players were given some harsh words from the coaches at half-time.

Scott-Young explained: "It was very physical, very direct and we weren't manning up in the first 40.

"We came in and the coaches gave us some strong wording to say the least.

"Radders (Lee Radford) and Dows (Phil Dowson) said it was unacceptable, not good enough, and second half we did flick a switch, which was good to see.

"We know what we're capable of and you see in the last 20 minutes of the game that we can be physical.

"A lot of our bench came on and had an impact.

"Curtis Langdon came on and started hitting people, which gave us a bit of momentum.

"It seems to be that when one boy comes on and starts doing that, we all follow suit, so we just need that initial spark.

"We shouldn't be relying on the coaches to get us up for it - it should be self-driven."

Saints face Doncaster Knights in their final cup match on Sunday before the Premiership opener at Sale.

Scott-Young said: "The first few weeks we had a few younger boys but now we're rolling in that Premiership first team and everyone's getting a bit more game time.

"We had some debutants, TP (Tom Pearson) and Chunya (Munga), so it was good to see them in the Saints jersey for the first time.

"We'll see what happens this weekend in terms of selection but it's all going well looking forward to Donny."