Vesty discusses stand-out players, Leinster performance and Saints' international stars

The black, green and gold scored four tries on the day, with skipper James Ramm, Robbie Smith, Will Glister and Sam Graham on the scoresheet.

And when asked who stood out, Saints head coach Vesty said: "I thought Callum Hunter-Hill, the first time he's put the shirt on, I was really impressed with him.

"It was good to see Josh (Kemeny) - he's got so much intent in the contact and we saw a lot of that. He also made that break at the end there and he's obviously a good athlete.

"The new guys in the pack did really well and in the backs, I thought Archie (McParland) was fantastic.

"We made a few mistakes in the backs but it's going to happen on day one.

"At the end, no one in our backs was over 20!

"TT (Toby Thame) was fantastic and played 80 minutes. It wasn't the plan but we got a little injury so he had to play the full game and he did a really good job. He's got a good head on him so he won't get fazed doing that.

"What we want to see from the young guys is the intent and wanting to be proactive on the pitch, whether you're making mistakes or scoring tries or whatever, and I thought Rafe (Witheat) was exactly that."

On the performance as a whole, in which Saints shipped eight tries, Vesty said: "We were trying to do lots of the right things, lots of the actions we wanted to see.

"We made a lot of mistakes doing those things and that's not massively a surprise for a first pre-season game.

"Leinster were a bit further ahead in their match prep, and it showed really.

"On the whole, we showed really good intent, we know what we're trying to do and that's a real positive.

"We were really good defensively. We weren't good enough in specific areas, so our maul defence let us down and we ended up defending on our line too often.

"There were some really good sets in there but once you get tired, it's very, very difficult.

"It was a really good hit-out and our movement around of defence and our intent to collide was excellent.

"We made a lot of mistakes with the ball that meant they had the ball in our 22 a lot.

"It was a really good hit-out, a good practice session.

"We said to the boys 'we want to see these actions, this is what we're going after'. It wasn't outcome-based, we wanted to see intent - and we saw that today in spades.

"We saw lots of examples of what we asked of the boys.

"It was also really clear where we need to get better, which is maul defence, which is our breakdown - they are the two clear elements to come out of that.

"When our ball's quick, the game's easy because we can create space but every team is going to come after us there and they (Leinster) were a great example of that.

"Actually, it was what we'd expect going in."

Saints next and final pre-season game before the Gallagher Premiership opener at Bath on September 20 comes next Friday at home to Bedford Blues.

It was thought Saints could not field their England stars until the Bath match, but the club has received clarification that they can now feature against Bedford.

"Internationals are available as long as they didn't play a certain amount of games so we'll be playing a certain number of those," Vesty said.

"It will be another really good hit-out and we won't change what we're going after.

"We'll want a better showing in our maul defence, a better showing in our breakdown and I think we will get that.

"The Bedford game is the next step to give us the best opportunity to be at our best against Bath for 80 minutes."