Lack of momentum has been so frustrating for Coles and Saints

So many of their players have been unable to find a rhythm in what has been a largely fragmented campaign.

And that again proved problematic last Friday night as the black, green and gold failed to click in a chastening 33-0 defeat at home to a solid and organised Leicester Tigers team.

Coles came off the bench in that match, making just his second appearance since the Investec Champions Cup win against Munster on January 18.

And he wasn't the only one who has been lacking game time in recent months as he and the likes of Curtis Langdon and Trevor Davison have barely played for so long.

Combine that with Saints throwing the likes of Fin Smith and Fraser Dingwall straight back in after England duty, and it all made for a horribly disjointed display on derby day.

“It's been frustrating,” said Coles, who trained with England during the Guinness Six Nations but didn’t get any game time with the Red Rose.

“It was really exciting being a part of the England campaign.

“Having been involved in the group for a number of campaigns, I've seen us growing really well.

“To see us go on and have a really strong Six Nations and probably prove a lot of people wrong was really positive.

“I would rather have been on the pitch than just training but either way it was a cool experience to be involved in that.

“It's just been a bit here and there with my games this season so far.

“I've had a few niggly injuries that have kept me out for a few weeks at a time and they just keep breaking up the momentum.

“I'm hoping I've put that behind me now and I can get a run of games together.”

So how tough is it to go so long without consistent game time?

“It's a bit strange because you're still training really hard so you're getting a lot of exposure to rugby, but there's nothing quite like the games so you do feel there's a little bit of rust coming back in,” Coles said.

“I didn't feel unfit or anything like that but it's just getting used to the match intensity.

“I didn't feel too bad coming on last weekend in that sense but you just have to keep visualising stuff in your head because you're not actually getting the chance to go out and do it.

“It's a funny one and it plays on your mind a bit so until you get out on the pitch it's always in the back of your head.”

By the time Coles got on against Tigers, the game was well and truly drifting away from Saints, who shipped three tries during the opening 15 minutes.

“It's probably one of, if not the, most painful games I've been a part of really,” Coles said.

“It made for a pretty tough weekend.

“We were in on Sunday and the wounds were still very fresh from the game.

“It's never nice to lose to your rivals but to lose at home without scoring a point was a pretty sobering experience.

“It was a difficult night for us, a difficult night for the fans. We're really aware of how much support they give us and we want to repay that with much better performances than what we put on the pitch on Friday.”

So what did the review process look like for Saints when they returned to training two days after the Tigers mauling?

Coles explained: “After that game, we felt like we needed something a bit different and a group of us senior players felt like we needed to get all the players together without the coaches to really put the mirror on ourselves and have a think as a playing group about 'were we doing enough?', 'what can we do differently?'.

“We're the ones on the pitch and I'm sure some of the coaches would love to put their boots on, get out there and show us, but they can't.

“So we've got to take responsibility as a playing group and we actually just sat down like that, didn't show any clips, just had a real honest chat with each other.

“Then, as the week's progressed, the coaches have shown us some more technical stuff.”

It was so strange to see Saints suffer such a heavy defeat, particularly at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

So what went so badly wrong?

“It's what we were trying to get to the bottom of – how that can happen, because it's not something that's happened to us, especially here at home,” Coles said.

“The number of handling errors that were made were pretty astronomical, and that's not normal for us either so I think there's a lack of game time together – especially in our backline, loads of the lads have been away, so it's about trying to get that cohesion back in, but that can't be the only reason.

“It was a bizarre night, a frustrating night, a pretty horrible night.”

Saints are desperate for a big response this week as they travel to Sale Sharks hoping to claim a first win in the league there since March 2017.

“We know we're capable of it and to have that record put on us that we've not had a nil at home in however long, we've then got the chance to go and do something really positive the next weekend and change what has been a bad away record for us at Sale,” Coles said.

“It's great in sport that you can just go and get your teeth into something the next week.

“We've had to lick our wounds a bit, try to pick each other up because everyone was feeling pretty dire after last Friday.

“We've re-energised ourselves to go and change last weekend's performance and hopefully change what's been a poor away record for us at Sale.

“We're excited about it.”

Whereas Saints are eighth in the standings, 10 points off the top four with six games to go, Sale are firmly in the top-four mix, sitting sixth, two points adrift of the final play-off place.

“They're a really strong outfit with good players all across the pitch,” Coles said.

“They're well organised, they're threatening with their kicking game and their pack is physical and direct with a very strong set piece.

“We're well aware of their threats but after what happened last week, the main thing is focusing on us and getting back to us because we know we weren't anywhere near ourselves.

“We'll get much more pay out of bringing the best out of ourselves than worrying too much about the opposition.”