Horne welcomes Gaffney's arrival at Saints

Instead, Horne believes daily hard work is the only way for he and his team-mates to arrest the current slide.

Saints were thrashed 50-21 by Harlequins on Saturday, shipping seven tries on a sobering day at Twickenham.

It was a seventh successive league loss for the green, black and gold and a 12th defeat in the past 13 matches in all competitions.

Gaffney begins work at the Gardens today, having been drafted in as coaching consultant.

He will spearhead the coaching staff until the end of the season and the 70-year-old is a man Horne knows well, having worked with him at Super Rugby side the Waratahs.

And when asked about Gaffney's appointment, Horne said: "It's good to get clarity around that position for everyone involved, but there's no magic formula.

"We need to work hard, get better and he's got a vast amount of experience.

"He's seen it all so it's nothing new to him to come to a new group of players and try to get the most out of them."

Horne scored against Harlequins last Saturday, with Nic Groom and Mike Haywood also dotting down.

But it was too little, too late as Saints were well beaten.

"It was difficult," Horne said.

"On the big stage, you want to be at your best and we weren't on Saturday.

"We were made to pay for it.

"Being 30-odd points down, you give yourselves an uphill battle.

"We did put ourselves in a position to get that four-try bonus point but we didn't get that either due to execution.

"It's disappointing.

"As players we want to play well on that kind of stage and we didn't play well on Saturday."

Saints will host Gloucester on Saturday in the final Premiership game before the Champions Cup returns.

And Horne added: "We're just working every day to improve.

"We need to work hard every single day.

"We've got to be proud of what we do and work on every little skill so that when it comes under pressure in the game, it's second nature.

"Every day, we want to get better and better and hopefully on Saturday we can put in a performance we can be proud of.

"It's disappointing because I know our supporters filled Franklin's Gardens against Exeter and they travelled down to Twickenham last weekend.

"We'll get there and we've got the players to do it."