Saints set for 'honest conversations' ahead of trip to Sandy Park

The black, green and gold were beaten 20-14 at home by Bristol Bears on Sunday, surrendering a 14-0 lead during the second half.

Saints have now lost back-to-back games at Franklin's Gardens, having also been stung by a late London Irish comeback last month.

And they will now be desperate to recover quickly as they travel to face Gallagher Premiership table-toppers Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on Sunday.

"It (the defeat to Bristol) was pretty disappointing on the whole," Waller said.

"We threw away a 14-point lead so there are some honest conversations coming this week,

"But credit to Bristol - they're a really dangerous side. We spoke about that and there was two-minute block where they scored two tries and our backs were against the wall.

"It was very frustrating and there's plenty to work on.

"We're going to have some honest conversations this week and then it's into Exeter.

"We're not hiding away from it - it wasn't good enough."

Saints were only able to score once against Bristol, struggling to break the Bears down late on.

But Waller said: "I don't think we've lost our spark.

"We created a lot of opportunities but a couple of times we've made some fundamental skill errors.

"We're still working pretty well and looking pretty sharp at times.

"But it wasn't good enough as a whole - there were too many errors.

"Our knowledge is good but our execution is poor at times so it's definitely something we'll have to look at this week."