'Nice to get that one out of the way' - Saints star Dingwall happy to be back

Dingwall had been ruled out of the previous Sunday's defeat at Union Bordeaux Bègles due to the concussion he sustained against Harlequins.

At the time, it looked like a hugely worrying injury for the England centre as he received lengthy medical treatment on the cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens pitch before being stretchered off.

But thankfully for Dingwall and Saints, he was able to make a quick return, missing just one match.

And after the 43-28 victory against Scarlets, in which Dingwall skippered Saints, the 26-year-old said: "I feel good.

"It was nice to get that one out of the way.

"Being able to sit back and know it's out of the way is quite nice.

"It wasn't the greatest head knock and the optics weren't great. I scared a lot of people. With all the neck precautionary stuff, it makes it look a lot worse.

"Thankfully I've got great staff around me who were looking after me, and my family and my girlfriend did a good job looking after me.

"I wasn't struggling for too long. I managed to be back around for the second half.

"Thanks to everyone who sent nice messages.

"I was all okay."

Dingwall is a key figure for Saints and he played the full 80 minutes as they eventually got over the line against Scarlets to set up an Investec Champions Cup home round of 16 tie against Castres on the first weekend of April.

"Being pretty honest, it wasn't a great performance by us because we were pretty loose and we never really got anything going, but we still scored 43 points and take away five points," Dingwall said.

"It wasn't fluid and we made a lot of errors around our ball carry, our shape never really got going as well as it can do so there were just a few things that were very clunky and quite obvious and that just becomes quite frustrating.

"But when we did get things right and we stacked a few things on top of each other we ended up scoring.

"We just knew we left a lot out there.

"But I don't want to say we didn't have a good team in front of us because they put in a massive effort and they were doing some really good stuff.

"I just think we felt frustrated by the errors that were within our control.

"The other team did good things, and that's allowed, but the frustration was that we made a lot of errors that were within our control.

"There was frustration but it's a good place to be when you get five points in Europe and you're top two in the group, so that's alright.

"It's always good to have the perspective to understand where you've come from and what you're building towards.

"It's what we demand of each other now, it's a great place to be and constantly we want to keep kicking on and getting better because we know within this group we've got great talent to do great things, but you only do that by getting performances in games and keep on pushing.

"We'll take a lot out of that game."

Saints made it all the way to the Champions Cup final last year, having had home ties in the round of 16 and the quarter-finals.

And Dingwall said: "It (home advantage) is massively important.

"We saw last year how important those home games are.

"It's a massive effort to get there and even the boys digging out a point against Bordeaux, it all contributes.

"We'll be excited for that match and it's another exciting knockout round tie here."

Edoardo Todaro scored a superb first-half hat-trick for Saints against Scarlets, taking his try tally to nine in 12 matches, having only made his senior debut back in September.

"He's just got a fantastic knack for rugby," Dingwall said.

"He's a bit like Freemo (Tommy Freeman) when he came through - he doesn't look like he's actually thinking too much about rugby, he's just very good at it.

"What a place to be! He's just a young boy enjoying himself a lot.

"He sees space nicely, he manages to get over the try line nicely so we're lucky to have him."

Next up for Todaro, Dingwall and Co is a trip to one of Saints' most unhappy hunting grounds as they go to Sale Sharks on Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm).

It is the final Gallagher PREM match until mid-March, and Saints know they will have their work cut out against a fired-up Sale Sharks side, who lost 47-21 at the Gardens on December 20.

"It's a really hard place to go and we've struggled there over the last however many years," Dingwall said.

"It's one we want to get right.

"There's the added flavour to it that when we had them here we scored a fair few points against them so I'm sure that's left a bit of a sour taste in their mouths.

"We're going there looking forward to a proper clash.

"Every week seems to be tough, every week there's a big game and you're seeing more and more of how squads are having to managed because games are so brutal.

"There's always a demand and a tough opponent coming.

"We'll be really clever around how we prepare this week but not much will change because we know our preparation equals how well we perform."