Cruse 'hungry for more' as he targets big season at Saints

The black, green and gold were beaten in the final four by Saracens, who went on to claim the title with a victory against Sale Sharks at Twickenham.

Saints have now reached back-to-back Premiership semi-finals, but hopes are high that they can go even further this season.

And Cruse, who started at hooker in the play-off defeat at Saracens, said: “It was good to be in a semi-final at the end of the season and if you'd offered me that (when left out of work by Wasps’ demise) in October, I'd obviously have snapped your hand off.

“But at the same time, it would have been nice to win the semi-final, get to the final and go on and win something.

“It was pleasing from where I was in October but now I'm here and I'm settled in, I'm hungry for more. I want to win something!”

Saints have added some talented players to their squad this summer, including the likes of Chunya Munga and Tom Pearson.

And Cruse said: “It's a young group.

“It's a group that experienced a semi-final last season and we'll be better off for that experience.

“There's a good mix of experience and youth.

“It is a young squad but there's experience in this group as well because Fraser Dingwall had his 100th game last season and he's 24.

“There's a lot of quality around.

“We're obviously looking to improve on what we did last year and hopefully we can be in the mix at the end of the season.”

Cruse arrived at Saints on a short-term deal back in January, and he did enough to earn a contract extension, which he signed in June.

Now he will compete with a strong set of hookers at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens, with new signing Curtis Langdon, Sam Matavesi and Robbie Smith all vying for starts.

“It's brilliant actually,” Cruse said.

“Curtis has joined us, Sammy's away with Fiji and Robbie was brilliant last season.

“We're competitive within training and we've all got our own goals - we're all representing the club.

“It bodes well for the club at hooker at the moment.”