Northampton Saints 2023/24: Tom Vickers' season preview

Vesty exudes nothing but excitement about what lies ahead for his players at the AJ Bell Stadium on Sunday, and you can actually see why.

Because if Saints want to show they have improved in the areas they really needed to, then a match-up against the bone-crunching Sharks will be the perfect barometer.

And if Saints truly do have top-two ambitions - something that was repeated regularly during this week's pre-match media session - then these are the kind of tests they will have to pass.

"The fixture gods have smiled on us to give us a good test straight off the bat to see where we're at,” Vesty said.

A team that hopes to achieve a home semi-final has to have not only the skill but the resilience to overcome battles in all kinds of environment.

If you want to host a play-off match, you have to get good at winning scraps on the road.

Saints weren't able to do that often enough last season, securing just three league successes away from home.

They won at Wasps, a triumph that counted for nothing after the Coventry-based club went into administration, Leicester Tigers and Newcastle Falcons.

The Falcons performance was full of the chutzpah that Saints possess when they are at their flowing best.

But it was actually the Tigers success that has to be the template this time round.

On that day, the resilience shown by the black, green and gold was something they had previously struggled to deliver.

They dogged it out and took their chance to strike at the heart of Tigers when the opportunity presented itself.

Not only were they clinical but they were combative and, when it counted the most, composed.

Those qualities will be needed by the bucketload at Sale on Sunday and beyond.

And Saints will hope that the additions they have made during the summer can help them deliver their aims.

When they won their first, and so far only, Premiership title back in 2014 - yes, we're talking about that again! - they added key pieces that completed the jigsaw at home and in Europe.

Alex King came in as attack coach, while the likes of Alex Corbisiero, Kahn Fotuali'i and George North arrived to bring some extra star quality to a team that already had a fair bit of it.

Those signatures took Saints to a new level, helping them to take that final step towards a Premiership and Challenge Cup double.

This summer has felt a little like the 2013 version, with the club addressing key needs.

They required some extra energy at loosehead, something they will hope youngster Tarek Haffar can provide.

They badly needed a breakdown master, something Tom Pearson has shown he can be.

They needed some extra centre power, something that Burger Odendaal can offer.

And they needed a defence coach to help knit everything together, something they will hope Lee Radford can do.

The ingredients are all there - now it's just about whether Saints can finally come up with the recipe for success in the season ahead.