Pienaar hails Saints' 'effort and intent' after cup win at Newcastle
Scrum coach Jaco Pienaar was impressed with the work Saints put in during their 49-21 PREM Rugby Cup success at Newcastle Red Bulls on Friday night.
The black, green and gold scored seven tries at Kingston Park as they booked their place in the cup semi-finals with one pool game still to play.
Saints had gone 7-0 down early on as Newcastle started strongly, but the away side responded really well to bag a third successive bonus-point win in the cup competition.
And Pienaar said: “The players did so well. The effort and the intent was really good tonight.
"It's hard to pick who stood out. I thought Jack (Lewis) did well again. It was only Charlie Ulcoq's third game and he went well as a youngster.
"The more Archie Benson plays, the better he gets. He's a good player.
"This win came off the back of the effort the players put in, their desire to be physical and things follow from that.
"It's about doing the hard work first.
"We said as a group that this is the first trophy we can win this year, and we're going after it.
"This group is going well and there's no reason to change that.”