Langdon feeling good after strong return to Saints action at the Stoop

Langdon made his first appearance since suffering a thumb injury in the Investec Champions Cup quarter-final defeat at Bath on April 10 as he started the PREM final-day fixture at Harlequins.

The England hooker played 60 minutes, albeit with a brief spell off the field to get some stitches in a forehead wound, and was delighted to be back.

And he's now hoping he can get a chance to take to the field in the play-off semi-final at home to Leicester Tigers on Friday night.

"You can do all the running you want but you can't replicate match fitness," Langdon said.

"Credit to the strength and conditioning staff because I felt fit today, felt good.

"First collisions for a while so I came in a bit rusty in some areas, but I'll be a lot better for it next week.

"I'm looking forward to getting stuck in now and putting the right foot forward next week."

When asked about the cut on the forehead that needed treatment during the first half, Langdon said: "It's alright. It's just typical, been one of those seasons.

"It was a bit of a whack, a bit of a cut, a few stitches and it will be alright.

"I'll look after it this weekend and it will be fine."

Though he was happy to be back, Langdon was disappointed that Saints couldn't quite get over the line against Harlequins.

The home side snatched a dramatic 38-31 victory at the Twickenham Stoop thanks to Tom Lawday's try from the final play of the game.

"It obviously wasn't the result we wanted and there were definitely some focus areas we need to improve on going into next week, but there were some parts that were good," Langdon said.

"It's minutes under the belt and I'm just really looking forward to hopefully being involved next week and getting the right result."

Reflecting further on the loss at Quins, Langdon added: "Don't get me wrong, we want to win every game we play.

"We're a competitive group of lads and it does hurt a little bit losing the last league game of the season.

"We weren't happy with the breakdown. Quins have got some threats across the back row with (Alex) Dombrandt, Will Evans, (Jack) Kenningham and it's an area we need to be better. We'll have to reflect on it and be hot on it next week.

"There were some good points: our lineout functioned well, some of our hit in defence was good, but we'll go away, look at it and be better next week."

Now all roads lead back to the Gardens, where table-topping Saints will host fourth-placed finishers Tigers on Friday night.

"I don't mind who we've got," Langdon said. "Play anyone at home and we'll be happy.

"With it being Tigers, there's an added element of it being a derby.

"It was another performance we weren't too happy with at their place a few weeks back but we're really excited we get to play that game at home and I'm looking forward to it."