Dickson sure Saints will deliver in Dublin

The scrum-half echoed the sentiments of his team-mates and the coaching staff in admitting his embarrassment after Saturday’s 40-7 drubbing by Leinster at Franklin’s Gardens.

Saints have now set their sights on making amends for that shocking showing when they head to the Aviva Stadium.

And Dickson is confident Northampton supporters will see a much-improved performance from their team on Saturday evening.

“What they did to us at the weekend was the sort of thing we’ve done to teams when they’ve come to Franklin’s Gardens,” said the England star. “We’ve been on the front foot and teams are hard to get on top of when they’re on the front foot.

“They got over the gain line and when they do that they’re hard to stop but we’ve got to work hard, go back to the drawing board and make sure we put a performance in this week.

“Last weekend just wasn’t us. We are embarrassed by that and I’m pretty sure we’ll put it right this week.”

Dickson is drawing belief from the events of last December, when Saints were thrashed 25-6 by Ulster at home before claiming a superb 10-9 win in Belfast eight days later.

A similar response is required this weekend, and Northampton’s No.9 has urged his team-mates to keep their heads up.

Dickson, who scored his side’s only try against Leinster last weekend, said: “The beauty of this game is that we get another crack at them over there and the sort of thing that happened to us at Ulster last year - we went there and took their unbeaten record.

“We’ve got to hold our heads up, things happen and we’ve got to make sure we move on now.”