Saints not satisfied with just making the quarter-finals, says Biggar

The black, green and gold did well to qualify from a pool that contained Leinster, Lyon and Benetton.

Chris Boyd's side finished second, setting up a last-eight tie against Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on Sunday evening.

And though they have been on a barren run of form, winning just two of their past 12 matches, Saints still believe they can do something special this season.

"We desperately want it because of what we had a real taste for last year when we won the Premiership Rugby Cup, giving a young group a taste of success, and when we made the top four in Premiership," Biggar told BT Sport.

"If you keep getting enough tastes of those things you’re going to want that all the time and for us as a group we’ve got to make sure we keep providing those and keep progressing.

"I don’t think anyone here is going to be satisfied with just getting out the group and making a quarter-final.

"We’ve got a group who are so hungry.

"I think we need to keep making sure we’re chasing success rather than just patting ourselves on the back for playing well now and again in the pool stages.

"Even though the day to day and week to week Premiership rugby is special, when a big European weekend comes along it’s really really special and means a huge amount to the club.

"It's testament to work that’s been done around the club to be talking about us in a quarter-final."

Saints face a huge challenge against an Exeter side who have blown plenty of teams away at home and abroad this season.

And Biggar said: "We’re very much aware that if you’re not on the money against Exeter you’re going to be in for a tough time.

"When you look at that Exeter side you have to say there’s very few weaknesses.

"When you play a team like that your basics have to be right on the money, make sure your set piece is right because if it isn’t you’re in a bit of trouble anyway so that’s the key thing.

"They’ve got the ability to strangle teams in a way that probably only Saracens have had the answer for over the last couple of seasons.

"If their game plan or their big players aren’t firing they’ve got the ability to grind the game out, kicks to the corners and really make life difficult for teams.

"They ask you to make so many tackles and your work rate is always going to be questioned against a team like that."

This will be Saints' first experience of playing a huge knockout match behind closed doors.

And Biggar said: "People can say what they want but it does almost feel like a training game because there’s no real atmosphere in the ground.

"For someone like myself, a huge reason why I came to this club was to play in front of 13/14,000 every Saturday.

"When I watched all the football games I was of the opinion that it doesn’t really make a huge difference, they’ve just got to get on with it, but then when you experience it yourself you’re feeling exactly the same and it takes you a few games to get used to it."

BT Sport is the home of the Heineken Champions Cup with every single match live. Watch Exeter v Northampton on Sunday, September 20 from 5:15pm on BT Sport 3.