The big interview: Tom Vickers talks to key Saints summer signing Curtis Langdon

That's how Phil Dowson feels about Curtis Langdon, who is looking like one of the signings of the season at Saints.

Langdon has come in from Montpellier and made his mark from the off, with little else needing to be added to what Dowson said about him.

He has felt like the heartbeat of the team at times, with his energy fuelling a fine start to the campaign from Saints.

He was at it again last Saturday, scoring twice as Saints flew into a 24-7 lead during in the first half of the 31-29 success at Gloucester.

Langdon's second score was a top-notch effort as he added an earlier effort from the back of a dominant maul.

And it was another performance that illustrated just what kind of impact he is able to have, and continues to have, on this black, green and gold bunch.

"First and foremost for me, I just want to do my job," Langdon said, when asked what he tries to bring to the team on a matchday.

"I have to make sure my lineout throws are where they need to be, lead the scrum, which probably didn't go as well as we'd have liked last weekend, and other than that it's about doing my job in defence and bringing a lot of energy and intent to our attacking system.

"I try to bring physicality as well and try to take the team forward."

Langdon looks to have taken to life at Saints so easily.

"I'd never really been to Northampton before apart from playing here as part of an away team, but what's made it easy is that we've got a good group of lads who are a similar age to me," he said.

"Northampton is quite a small place, we all live close together, there's always lads who are keen to do stuff when we're not at training, which is nice.

"I get a lot of help from the coaches and sitting down and going through match clips has been really good.

"We had those Prem Cup games to start the season, got stuck into those and as soon as I started playing, it didn't take long for me to feel settled here.

"It didn't disappoint in my first game at home at the Gardens and I really enjoy the atmosphere here and seeing all the fans who come out and support.

"When you drive to the stadium, you see all the local supporters with their Northampton shirts on and it's quite special to see."

Langdon and Co have been building belief week by week, so much so that they've now bagged five huge wins on the bounce.

"We speak every week about putting a performance in and getting a step closer to being the team we want to be," Langdon said.

"We might not be getting 10/10 performances every week but we're making a step in the right direction by getting these wins.

"There's stuff to work on but hopefully we can keep getting better and have a really big season this year."

Langdon has put in so many strong performances so far that he struggles to pick out one match that he enjoyed the most.

But after a lengthy pause and some thought, he selects one that may come as something of a surprise but which probably sums up the extra steel he has added to Saints.

"My favourite game is probably Newcastle away," Langdon. "It was a gritty game, the weather wasn't very good and a lot of the stuff we worked hard on through pre-season kind of showed in that game, which was pretty good."

Last weekend's win at Gloucester was shaping up to be a memorable one for Langdon, who was on a hat-trick by half-time.

But he didn't get to complete it as Saints sought to switch things up in the scrum following a tough first half in the set piece.

"I definitely wanted to be out there again in the second half but it was tough because we had that yellow card before half-time and Gloucester scored as well just before we went in," Langdon said.

"Momentum changed a little bit and early on in the second half we struggled to get that momentum back.

"Furbs (skipper George Furbank) said after the game that we may have lost momentum but the way we were able to stick in the fight and claw it back in the end is something we want to hang our hat on."

Saints continue to make huge strides, so did Langdon ever envisage that the team would progress this quickly during his first season at the club?

"It's going how I wanted it to, but I'm not sure how I saw it going, to be honest," he said.

"When I came here, I knew we had a really strong team, I knew we had lots of potential to win stuff straight away and that's what we want to do.

"It's obviously only early days, we're only halfway through the season, but we're in a good place and we just need to keep getting better and not get too far ahead of ourselves.

"We've had five wins in a row but we've got a big game this weekend against Sale, who are above us in the league.

"We've got the Champions Cup games coming up again in January and it's something we wanted to do well in this year so it's still very early days but stuff is going well.

"We've got to make sure we keep improving as a team and put good performances on the pitch."

This weekend's opposition is a club Langdon knows well as he had a six-year stint with Sale after making a switch from London Irish's Academy setup.

His brother, Nathan, is still at the club, though he has been out on loan of late.

And Langdon says his sibling will be in attendance this weekend, but he isn't sure who he will be supporting!

"He's been playing for Sale FC but he did play for Sale earlier in the season against Exeter and Gloucester and he'll be here this weekend," Langdon said.

"I haven't asked him who he'll be supporting but hopefully he'll be supporting me.

"It will be good to see him at the game at the weekend because he hasn't been able to get to many this year."