Win was key, but Saints know they must be so much better against Saracens

But ultimately, as he eventually pointed out after dissecting events at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens, ‘we won, so that's the most important thing’.

Saints, of course, know they must be much better in the weeks and months ahead if they want to achieve their aim of securing silverware this season.

And though they were disappointed with their display against Gallagher PREM bottom side Newcastle, they were still able to reflect on claiming a welcome five points at home.

"It's because myself and this team hold ourselves to higher standards than that," said Hutchinson, explaining why there wasn't a feeling of pure joy at the final whistle.

"We won, so that's the most important thing.

"We kept that streak alive.

"But it was really tough.

"If we could make every error that there was in the playbook, I think we did it.

"It was really disappointing but I guess you've got to take away the fact we got five points at home and we're still top of the league.

"We definitely know we need to be better."

So why were Saints far from at their best in their first PREM game since the end of January?

"It's odd because we started really well," Hutchinson said.

"We scored in the first two minutes and were seven points up, and the hard thing about sport is that you can't really put your finger on why mentally you're not in the right space.

"It was a perfect day in terms of the weather and it's what we absolutely love.

"Our breakdown wasn't good enough, too many handling errors let them back into the game and that's what made it really close.

"We pride ourselves on being better than that."

Hutchinson felt Saints took too much time to adapt to Newcastle's game plan.

The centre said: "We've got to be able to understand situations quicker.

"It took us until half-time to work out that their one game plan was to come down here and really mess up our breakdown.

"We didn't react quickly enough so we spoke about it at half-time and it took us a bit of time to get back into it.

"Fortunately we got the four tries."

Hutchinson added: "When I woke up, I thought it would be the perfect day for rugby but it wasn't.

"Energy is a funny one because we started really well.

"I don't know if people took their foot off the gas or whatever but we'll use it as a game to get the cobwebs out and we'll look forward to this week."

Saints can’t afford to lack energy this Saturday as they face a huge battle with Saracens at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (kick-off 6pm).

"I've never been there so I'm really looking forward to it," Hutchinson said.

"It's a really good spectacle for the game as well.

"Saracens will be hungry after what happened last Friday and we'll want to put some mistakes right from last Saturday."

Hutchinson spent time with Scotland during the Guinness Six Nations, but he didn't get the chance to shine.

"I'd rather be there (in camp) than not," he said.

"I didn't get what I personally wanted out of it but the team's going well and that showed with where they finished in the table (Scotland came third).

"It's good, healthy competition for the team."