Vesty wants Saints to 'show the world what we can do'

The attack coach saw the black, green and gold suffer a chastening 49-29 defeat at home to Harlequins last weekend, their second loss in as many Gallagher Premiership games this season.

Saints are now getting set to take on a Bristol side who finished in the top four during the previous campaign.

And ahead of the trip to Ashton Gate, Vesty said: “We're really disappointed with a poor result and a poor performance last weekend but we're staying strong and we're all in it together.

“Everyone is looking to see how we can get better on the pitch - that's everyone's goal.

“It's tough to take that result and it's never nice but we're all sticking together and we're all looking forward to getting another shot on Friday night.

“We've been working on trying to be tougher to score against and playing in the right areas and holding onto the ball for a longer period of time.

“We've been working on that for some time and that's why last weekend's result was really disappointing.

“We know where we need to make improvements and we failed for a good chunk of that last game, which hit us hard.

“There's no quick fix, it's about creating habits on the training pitch that we can take into the games at the weekend.

“In professional sport, there's always pressure and it's about how we deal with it.

“It can either make us go small and make our decision making slow or we can enjoy that pressure and get big and strong and go and show the world what we can do.”

Saints lost 47-10 at Bristol back in September.

But Vesty said: “They will be two very different teams to the ones that played back then, even though it wasn't that long ago.

“We're concentrating on our game, making sure our ducks are aligned and that we spend more time with the ball attacking in the right areas because we can score tries and hurt people.

“That puts pressure on opposition teams, it makes them make the mistakes and obviously at the moment that's what teams are doing to us.

“We need to turn that tide and all of it is looking internally, you don't get anything from looking at the opposition too much in situations like this.”

Saints have lost 14 of the past 16 matches they have played.

“It's absolutely challenging and you look at everything you do to help everyone get better,” Vesty said.

“We've got everyone mucking in to try to come at it in the right manner. It's a brilliant thing to say about Northampton Saints.

“No one likes losing and we're really disappointed with our performance last Saturday. It really grates me and gets me down, but it keeps me driving.

“No one is going to give up. We're going to work harder to get better and better.

“There are things we've identified for quite a while now and we're working really hard at them.

“We let ourselves down last weekend but there are things we're getting better and and seeing it transferring on to the training pitch.

“But there are other areas we need to be better at.”

So what has Vesty been focusing on as attack coach?

“Last weekend, we attacked really well, we moved the ball around, played the spaces really well but we ran into touch four times,” he said.

“Instead of having 10 attacks where we're going to attack and attack and put them under pressure, four of those times we just ran into touch.

“When you're coaching mini-rugby that's pretty much one of the first things you talk about so it was really disappointing to allow that to happen.

“It's not us and it's not acceptable for what we want to be.

“You look at the attack and what we were doing and it was very damaging.

“When we got our shape and moved them we hurt them but you can't go and give the ball away four times that easily.

“It's one example of a few frustrations.”

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