Mum's the word for Freeman as Saints star opts to keep try celebrations to a minimum

Saturday's opposition Leinster have yet to concede a single point in Europe since progressing from the pool stages, but if Freeman manages to break that duck with a try for Saints in the semi-final this weekend, he will have the words of his mum ringing in his ears.

Freeman decided to find a new way to celebrate after scoring against Castres Olympique in the quarter-final win at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens, opting for a pretend lawnmower.

It seemed fair enough, because with the amount of tries he notches these days, his trademark one finger in the air has been used to the maximum.

But, under 'strict instruction', he will simply stick to that in future.

"Mum's given me orders just to keep my head down and 'no more lawnmower celebrations' was the strict instruction so I'll leave it to (Henry) Pollock," said Freeman, who has scored 13 tries in 16 games for Saints this season. "He can do his thing."

Scoring against Leinster would seem worthy of something a bit special given they have thumped Harlequins and Glasgow Warriors in the knockout stages, scoring 114 points and conceding none.

But Saints are in no mood to get carried away at any point this weekend, knowing that a lack of composure cost them early on at Croke Park last year, when early errors gave Leinster a lead in the semi-final showdown.

Saints came roaring back late on, rattling Leinster, but they had left it just a little too late and the Irish giants held on to secure a 20-17 win after a thrilling finale.

"Games like that, you've got to be in it for 80 minutes," Freeman said.

"If you give them a sniff in the first 20, they're a team that can hold on very well and really punish you.

"But if you stress and get them under pressure, you know later down the line they're going to be panicking.

"We did get them panicking in that second half so if we can do that early doors and not let them get their game on us so quickly, we'll be in with a good shout."

Freeman, like many of his Saints team-mates, has gained a huge amount of experience with club and country since that clash at Croke Park on the same weekend last year.

And he said: "The more you're in these games, the more experience you get, and that's obviously going to help in certain situations and with the feel of the game, so it will be very beneficial for a couple of us.

"But it's all about getting the lads who haven't had that experience up to speed and keeping them focused.

"It's a game of rugby at the end of the day and we know if we can do as well as we can to put our game on that pitch, things happen quite nicely.

"We're looking forward to it."

He added: "I'm very excited.

"At the Aviva, it's a pretty much Ireland outfit with a couple of other bits of talent so it's going up against the best of the best really.

"On their current form, we're really looking forward to taking a chunk out of them."

Saints will try to use the lessons they learned last year to their advantage this weekend.

"We touched on it briefly on Monday and the lads wanted to speak about how they felt about the game," Freeman said.

"There are some nervous lads, of course, with lads who haven't been in that situation, but it's just about turning that into a positive thing.

"We probably do have the underdog card if we're being honest and that's only going to bode well for us, and hopefully put them under pressure."

Saints have beaten Leinster at the Aviva Stadium before, but it was way back in December 2013, when they recovered from a humbling 40-7 loss at the Gardens to prevail 18-9 in Dublin on the following weekend.

So have the current crop been shown any footage of that win by boss Phil Dowson, who was a key part of the Saints squad 12 years ago?

"No, we don't go that far back!" Freeman said.

"It's a new team but that Saints team back then took a battering and then went away the week after and won there so it can be done.

"It's not just a fortress and we'll be looking to get into them."

Saints travel to Dublin on the back of four successive wins in all competitions.

They have been back to their best at times, beating Clermont Auvergne, Castres Olympique, Newcastle Falcons and Bristol Bears.

"It's really good," Freeman said. "Obviously over the last couple of weeks we've gelled well, had our team back together and consistently played together.

"You can really see it's clicking for us again - we probably struggled with that at the start of the season.

"It's awesome to play in this team when we're on the ball and you've got the likes of (Henry) Pollock doing his thing, Fin (Smith) doing his thing, all of these talents coming out of their shell and doing what they do best.

"It's the best team to play for."