'Mixed bag' for Saints as they 'take learnings' from defeat at Ospreys

But he believes there will be plenty of lessons they can learn and take into the serious stuff when their Gallagher Premiership campaign kicks off at Sale Sharks next Friday night.

Saints were in control for long periods against Ospreys, leading 24-17 at one point in the second half, but the home side scored twice late on to win it.

And assistant coach Ferguson said: "There's a real mixed bag in there, but the biggest thing is that there will be some huge learnings.

"Although this group hates losing, we want to get better, and the best way to get better is taking our learnings.

"When we look at the tape on the way home, there will be some great stuff we can take away and take into the game next Friday, so that's the biggest positive.

"We tend to not really care who we're playing because we have a way of playing and expectations of the players to do it.

"Cohesion and combinations are given a bit of attention to but actually the individual skill and ability to carry that out is there to see from that.

"Coming here and winning by a considerable amount probably wouldn't prepare us as we want for the Premiership.

"Dows (Saints boss Phil Dowson) summed it up at the end there by saying we haven't lost any league points today but we have gained a lot of learnings. How quickly we can take those from the video tape into next Friday night will be the real success.

"The boys have worked incredibly hard - and we needed it because it was a long five weeks before we got into Bedford.

"We need this step up in opposition with all due respect and there's still a bit of work to do.

"We wouldn't expect to be the finished article so we're looking forward to getting in this week and finishing that off."

Saints have two games to look forward to next week as they host Saracens in the Premiership Rugby Cup on Thursday before travelling to Sale in the league curtain raiser a day later.

And Ferguson said: "We're really excited because it's a chance to get the whole squad playing.

"There were a few boys who were disappointed to be left behind today and now we have a great chance to see every player play over the weekend on Thursday and Friday.

"We'll probably work backwards from picking the Premiership team for Friday and all the boys left get a chance to put the shirt on for Thursday.

"What we care about is how good we can be as a Saints team, and we've seen bits from the past two games to show we can challenge anyone. We need to do that more consistently."