Saints must push on against Glasgow, says Pisi

Jim Mallinder’s men need to beat the Scottish side to keep their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals alive.

And they go into the game on the back of a narrow derby-day defeat at Leicester Tigers, who snatched a late 30-27 win at Welford Road last Saturday.

Saints had fought back from 21-0 down to level at 27-27 in that encounter, with their attacking game starting to click.

And Pisi, who did not play at Leicester due to returning late from family commitments in New Zealand, feels the tide is starting to turn for his inconsistent team.

“For us, it’s about winning this week,” said the Samoan centre.

“It’s about putting ourselves in a good position to go forward in this competition.

“Apart from the first 25 minutes last week, we were a class team, the team of old, and I hope we continue to press on.

“We’re starting to get little bits in our game coming back and I hope it continues through the year.

“We’re only halfway now and that’s the beauty of rugby.

“We’ve got another 13, 14 more games to go, and we’re still in this.

“It’s about building on what we’ve been building in the past couple of weeks.

“If we can take in the positives and get rid of the negatives and we can enjoy ourselves again and play with confidence, we can do well.

“Playing against Glasgow, pretty much the Scotland team, we need to control the game and be physical.”

Pisi scored when Saints beat Glasgow 26-15 at Scotstoun Stadium in November and he will start against them at Franklin’s Gardens this weekend.

But he knows he needs to make his mark, with George North, who moves back to the wing on Sunday, having impressed in the 13 shirt last Saturday.

“Young Georgie always wants to take my place,” joked Pisi.

“But it’s good because we’ve got class guys who can come in and your jersey is never your jersey until you finish.

“We’ve got good competition here, especially with our midfielders and a couple of them are injured at the moment, but it’s a good test.

“You always worry about it (getting your place back), but you’ve just got to crack on and it’s about what’s best for the team.

“I’m a team player whatever happens and you just have to wait for your chance.”

Glasgow will be gunning for revenge this weekend.

And Pisi said: “They won’t be too happy that we beat them up there and last time they came here we were about 20 points down, so hopefully that won’t happen again.

“Hopefully we will be 20 points up, but it’s going to be a tough game.

“Europe’s always tough and we’re in a good position at the moment.

“Coming back home, we owe our fans this week.”