Pisi admits his Saints showings have been below par

George Pisi feels he has been guilty of trying too hard this season (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

The Samoan centre shook his head in frustration with his own display when replaced during the second half of last Saturday’s 15-11 Champions Cup win against Scarlets.

Pisi has found himself substituted on a couple of occasions during the campaign, with JJ Hanrahan taking up a centre berth and Luther Burrell switching to Pisi’s spot at 13.

And the former Clermont Auvergne player feels missing pre-season due to Samoa’s World Cup commitments has set him back a little.

“You always enjoy coming back in and seeing the boys,” Pisi said.

“But it feels like you haven’t put the hard graft in that others have in pre-season and everything’s a bit muddled.

“Personally, I haven’t been up to the standard that I’m capable of.

“Hopefully the win that we had at the weekend will help us build momentum and when we do that, we should be the Saints of old.”

On that show of personal disappointment against Scarlets last weekend, he said: “I was just trying too hard.

“You get to the point where you get a bit frustrated and you’re going to get that in games.

“It’s about how you deal with it.

“I felt like I was a bit frustrated, tried a bit too hard, made a few mistakes but that’s part of rugby.

“It’s just about making sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Pisi’s form has almost mirrored that of Saints, who have won just two of their five games so far this season.

But the 29-year-old feels last weekend’s win was a shot in the arm ahead of Saturday’s game at Glasgow Warriors.

“It’s been a disappointing start for us,” he said.

“Boys came back from the World Cup, but I think we’re coming close to clicking.

“When it does click, something’s going to happen.

“It’s about being patient, making sure we don’t get too frustrated and not trying too hard.

“We took things for granted at the start of the season.

“We’ve got to go back to basics, the process, what we’re good at, what we can do and just go forward from there.”

Pisi was involved the last time Saints visited Glasgow, in the 27-20 Heieneken Cup defeat at Scotstoun Stadium in January 2013.

And he said: “They got a couple of soft tries on that day.

“I got a try as well, but it was so cold I couldn’t feel my feet.

“It’s going to be a good match this time.

“They play with a lot of endeavour and we’ve got to face what is pretty much Scotland’s national team.”