Myler: Saints have not spoken about semi-final heartache

Instead, Jim Mallinder’s men are focusing on the good memories they created against the side from Allianz Park.

Saints were beaten by Sarries in both the LV= Cup semi-final in March and, more importantly, in the Aviva Premiership play-off semi-final at Franklin’s Gardens in May.

But Northampton had gone into those games having won both matches against the north London outfit in the Premiership regular season.

And when asked whether the semi-final defeats have been mentioned this week, Myler said: “Not really.

“We talk about similar things every time we play Saracens. They’re always close games against them.

“On the whole, we’ve had pretty good success against them in recent seasons. Unfortunately, the games we lost against them last year were in semi-finals, but that’s the way it goes.

“Whoever plays best on the day is generally going to win and in the semi-finals, we didn’t play better than them.

“They deserved their wins, but in the league season we had two wins over them.

“We know we’ve got to play better than we have been, but we feel we’re capable of doing that.”

Saracens edged the Gardens meeting in May, winning 29-24 as they ended Saints’ hopes of retaining the title won by beating Sarries at Twickenham a year earlier.

Mark McCall’s men went on to claim the crown by beating Bath in the showpiece and they have started this season with three wins in as many games.

“It’s obviously a massive game, not only because we’re here for the first time this season but because Saracens are champions are for a reason - they’re a champion team,” Myler said.

“It’s a massive test for us but it’s good to be back here getting the crowd behind us and we’ll hopefully put in a performance that’s worthy of a good win.”