The big interview: Saints fly-half James Grayson talks to Tom Vickers

At the age of 25, Grayson is four years older than Fin Smith, who arrived following the demise of Worcester Warriors last October.

Prior to that, competition came from experienced campaigners Stephen Myler and then Dan Biggar.

So Grayson can now really look to grab the fly-half situation by the scruff off the neck if he can have better luck with injuries and find the consistency he knows he requires.

"Last year was a little bit stop-start for me,” Grayson said.

"I got injured over the Christmas period and then came back around February.Fin came in and did pretty well so I didn't really get as much opportunity as I would have liked.

"It's about wrestling that competition back and making sure we're both fighting as hard as we can for that starting spot.

"Whether he's starting or I'm starting, it's about making sure we're both putting the team in the best place to go and win on a Saturday afternoon.

"We need to be as consistent as possible and the same goes for me in terms of my performances.

"Fin’s obviously a very talented young lad and I've got my strengths and my weaknesses that I'll continue to work on.

"For me, it's about being as consistent as I can and making sure my performances are as consistent as they can be.”

Grayson got the start last Saturday as Saints headed to Bedford Blues for the first of two pre-season fixtures.

The result wasn’t what the black, green and gold wanted as their youthful team was beaten 33-24, but Grayson showed glimpses of his class.

He, like all of his team-mates, has bulked up a bit during pre-season as the coaches want Saints to add extra substance to their undoubted style.

And Grayson said: “Eating, weights, bit of running and sleeping has been my pre-season.

"I managed to put on three or four kilos and I think everyone's up.

"It's been a bit of emphasis on that from the strength and conditioning coaches, but to be fair, it's been good fun.

"It's been a little bit different to usual and it's been a breath of fresh air to be honest.

"Usually, there's a massive emphasis on the running and not much rugby involved but this pre-season has been a lot of weights and when we have run, it's been rugby-based.

"We've had conditioned games, short-sided games, getting lots of touches on the rugby ball from day one so it's been good fun.

"Being able to keep that rugby element all the way through means we're in a good place now to fire into some games.”

Saints struggled defensively last season, leading to the summer departure of coach Ian Vass.

Lee Radford has been drafted in, bringing his strong rugby league background over to union.

And Grayson said: “He's been good.

"He's a tough, northern bloke, a rugby league background with a wealth of knowledge and experience in that.

"He'll be first to say he's still learning parts of the union game and leaning on boys to get up to speed as quickly as possible, which is good.

"He's brought a real intent to everything we're doing in defence, two-man dominant collisions, spending time in the tackle, slowing the opposition down, really firing off the line and putting them under pressure again.

"He's been good fun."

Defending is an area that Grayson really seems to have improved since graduating from the Saints Academy.

“When I was younger, I probably found it hard,” he said.

"You always got told you had to go low and chop people low, whereas I feel I'm better at hitting higher to slow players down up top.

"I feel like I can get decent collisions that way and Radders is one for owning your shot and making sure you're good at the tackle you need to be good at. If that's going high and hitting on the ball, fair enough.

"I feel like you get plenty of traffic at 10 so you've got to front up and get stuck in, which is something I feel like I'm alright at.

"You've just got to make sure you're mentally right in each game to go and hit.”

With a new defence coach in place and several new signings, such as Tom Pearson and Burger Odendaal, made, hopes are high that Saints can finally deliver some silverware this season.

And Grayson said: “I’m massively excited.

"We've got some great lads.

"The unfortunate situation with London Irish left us with a couple of good lads coming from there so that will be really exciting to see.

"We've got Burger who's come from Japan after the Wasps situation.

"If we can get everyone fit and on the pitch, it's going to be a really exciting season and some good spectacles to watch.”

Saints will host the Barbarians on Saturday before starting their season with a Premiership Rugby Cup trip to Ealing Trailfinders on September 10.

"Having five Premiership Rugby Cup games means everyone's going to get a shot to get some game time under their belt,” Grayson said.

"You want to put your best foot forward for the Premiership. Our goal is to finish in the top two in the league, preferably top one, and get a home semi-final to make sure we get to the big dance.”