Botica ready to make up for '˜stupid' moment against Saints

And the Harlequins fly-half is now determined to make up for his ‘huge blunder’ when his team head to Franklin’s Gardens on Sunday.

Botica had to chance to seal a victory for Quins against Saints in the reverse fixture, but he failed with his attempt to kick the ball out to end the game.

Instead, his effort was kept in by the wind and fell into the clutches of Ben Foden, who started and finished the move that saw Jim Mallinder’s men snatch a dramatic 27-23 win.

And Botica is now eager to make amends by steering his side to victory this weekend.

“It was a huge blunder on my behalf against Saints - I look back now and cannot believe how stupid I was,” the fly-half told the official Premiership Rugby website.

“This weekend is a chance to prove a point, mostly to myself.

“It was not a very nice situation to be in, when you feel like you have let yourself down but more importantly let all the boys down.

“It took me a little while to get over it but I was straight back into it against Gloucester and then Leicester - I played well and we got a good win that helped my confidence.

“Last week (the home defeat to Worcester) was quite a weird one, we went into the game quite confident but we didn’t play very well, we didn’t get the rub of the green with a few things as well.

“We just couldn’t get anything going in the end. Inconsistency has been a real problem for us

“The game against Northampton is going to be huge.

“We literally have to put in a performance this weekend, if we don’t we have made it pretty much impossible for ourselves to get into the top four.

“The boys know where we are at, we have to go to Franklin’s and win - it’s a bit of an uphill battle but we can still do it.”