Saints ace Litchfield already looking forward to building on his big season

Litchfield has established himself as a key member of the Saints side this term, showing his quality at centre and on the wing.

He was hugely impressive on the final day of the Gallagher Premiership regular season last weekend, scoring a try in the 41-26 defeat to Gloucester at Kingsholm.

Litchfield clearly enjoyed his overall campaign, which saw him score three times in 22 appearances for Saints.

And he said: "I definitely feel this year I made a lot more starts than I did last year and I really feel I'm becoming part of the squad that can be relied on.

"I'm relishing ripping in again next year and hopefully I can build on this season.

"We get some chance to get away from rugby for a bit before we start to think about coming back in, so boys will be off to relax now."

Saints sent a heavily rotated team to Gloucester, giving many of their senior stars the weekend off.

But Litchfield did start, having come off the bench in the previous week's Investec Champions Cup final in Cardiff.

And he showed how much he developed as he was one of the most influential men on the day for Phil Dowson's side.

"When you feel like one of the senior guys you try to help the other boys and steer them in the right direction," Litchfield said.

"I've enjoyed that role and I felt the boys put on a good show.

"Obviously boys are going to be disappointed with the scoreline because it was probably a bit closer than that suggested, but again, similar to the Exeter week, it was a very different group to what you'd normally see.

"There was loads of good stuff in there and though there were a few mistakes in the first half that led to tries, other than that we were very much in the game and felt on top.

"On a different day, it (the scoreline) could have looked different."

At the age of 23, Litchfield was more senior than several of his Saints team-mates last Saturday.

He lined up alongside 17-year-old Henry Lumley at centre at Kingsholm.

And Litchfield said: "Henry Lumley, starting when you're 17 in the Prem is insane, so fair play to him - I thought he had a good game.

"There was a really good impact from Pats (another teenage debutant, James Pater) when he came on so I'm really pleased for those boys.

"It's pretty crazy but these boys in the Under-18s will do similar stuff to us.

"It's fairly seamless for them to step in and they did well."