Saints star Smith back to his brilliant best after much-needed break

And it's fair to say he looked cooked as he started for Saints just six days after guiding England to a superb 68-14 win in the Guinness Six Nations finale against Wales in Cardiff.

Smith was tasked with steering the Saints ship in a crucial East Midlands derby against Leicester Tigers, but it was to be a sobering night for the black, green and gold.

Tigers won 33-0 at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens, where Saints had never previously been nilled in a Premiership game.

Smith and his team-mates were shadows of their usually excellent selves as they slumped to a defeat that all but ended their title defence.

And it made Smith realise just how much he needed a break after playing such a huge part in England's successful Six Nations campaign.

"I was thinking 'lads, come on, do us a favour and be raring to go and I'll just tailgate my way through the game', but it didn't really happen like that," the Saints fly-half said.

"It was mad to go from the highest high, having an unbelievable performance against Wales, to having probably the lowest low I've had so far in my career.

"It was a pretty humbling day to say the least."

On the six-day transition between England and Saints games, Smith said: "It was probably something I hadn't appreciated, how difficult it was going to be.

"The mental stress of a big campaign like that, the first one I've probably done as well, it took its toll on me more than I probably appreciated as well.

"The physical stress as well, everyone had weeks off through the season or prior to that whereas I'd pretty much played the whole way through so my body was struggling a little bit.

"People talk all the time about it being different at Test level and you sort of go 'what are they on about?', but you go from playing in front of 15,000 to 80,000 every week and all of a sudden you're in the spotlight a lot more and the stress is a lot higher.

"It's definitely something that in campaigns in the future I'll pay a lot more respect to, and understand that transition from international to club isn't just going to be a seamless one and I have to put a little bit of attention and effort into making sure it happens naturally."

Smith was given the following week off as he headed to Dubai for some richly-deserved rest and relaxation.

It came at a tough time for Saints as they had to field scrum-half Tom James at fly-half against Sale Sharks due to an injury crisis at 10.

But there is no doubt Smith needed the break.

"So much - I was crying out for it," the 22-year-old said.

"I obviously felt pretty guilty because of the crisis at fly-half we had while I was sat on the beach, but it's a big season for me personally in terms of ambitions and I knew if I continued to play, I wouldn't be giving the best account of myself for me personally and the club.

"It was so important to get away.

"It was nice to get some sun - it doesn't look like I have - I was sat out in the sun all day and it was lovely!

"I probably didn't give the best account of myself (against Leicester) so I was really glad to have that week off and press the reset button.

"I felt like it was back to normal last week, which was nice."

Smith certainly was back to his brilliant best last Friday as he shone in the 46-24 Investec Champions Cup round of 16 victory against Clermont Auvergne at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

He scored a first-half try and pulled the strings in typically classy fashion as Saints set up a home quarter-final against Castres on Saturday evening.

"It was good," Smith said. "It felt a lot more like how we wanted to play and it felt a lot more like how I wanted to play personally as well.

"We were really happy with the performance – even though it wasn't all perfect - and I felt like that was what we owed the fans and each other after a disappointing last month or so."

Saints were finally able to field something close to their strongest side in a season beset with injuries and absences at key times.

They were still without the likes of Ollie Sleightholme and George Furbank but were able to pair Smith with Alex Mitchell at half-back, which is something that has rarely happened during a fragmented campaign.

And Smith said: "It's been bizarre.

"The amount of times I've heard us speak about getting the ball rolling and saying 'we can use this result to get momentum' and then the next week we go out and don't perform or for whatever reason we don't perform and then it's back in the same cycle.

"We have a good performance and it's like 'this one is going to be the one that catapults us' and then we lose, so it's been frustrating.

"It makes you reflect on the fortunes we had last season with the squad depth and being able to interchange when we had injuries but also the lack of injuries and how often we kept that same group of guys together and how much impact that has on your results.

"We didn't have Mitch for a few months at the start of the season but hopefully he and I can get a run of games together now."

Mitchell and Smith will be looking to mastermind another quarter-final success as Saints bid to reach the Champions Cup semi-finals for the second season in succession.

And ahead of the clash with Castres, Smith said: "It's a massive one.

"We had a home quarter-final (against Vodacom Bulls) last year as well and it was one of the most enjoyable games of the season so in what has been a disappointing season for us all, if we can get to a semi-final hopefully it will put a bit of a positive light on it and we feel we can keep pushing on from there."

Smith stated Saints' intention to run Clermont ragged last Friday - and they certainly did that.

So are they aiming to employ the same game plan against Castres?

"It will be similar," Smith said.

"There's a fine line between playing fast and playing reckless and we probably trod that line pretty thin last weekend so we'll be looking to be a little bit smarter with where we inject pace into the game.

"But always with these big French teams, we're going to back ourselves to be fitter and faster than them and hopefully it will be a similar sort of game to the one we had against Clermont."