Week off has helped Saints to sharpen their focus ahead of final two games

And that means the black, green and gold can solely focus on their results, knowing they must pick up as many points as possible to pile pressure on the side who leapfrogged them in the league standings late last month.

"It (the league schedule) is weird, isn't it?” said Saints head coach Sam Vesty.

"It's a strange season with teams (Worcester Warriors and Wasps) pulling out, but ultimately it comes down to winning games of rugby and we haven't done it quite well enough to be in the top four at the moment.

"But all we can control now is going out and putting our best foot forward against Sarries.

"Going after two wins gives us the best chance of getting into the top four so we're just focusing on that and what we can control around that.”

The below-par showing at the Gtech Community Stadium, where Saints lost 37-22 to a fired-up Irish side on March 25, has left Phil Dowson’s side to play catch-up.

And it seems likely that they will need to beat both Saracens and Newcastle Falcons to stand any sort of chance of securing a top-four spot this season.

Saints took last week off and returned to training earlier this week as they start to sharpen their focus on that April 15 home game against Saracens.

"Week off was good," said Vesty.

"You get your head out of rugby for a bit and focus on a few other things, which is always nice to do.

"When you come back in, you feel a bit refreshed.

"The timing's been excellent really.

"That chance to get a bit of rest and recuperation at this time of the season is good and allows us to really rip into the last couple of games before the play-offs.

"Although you want to crack back into it, the rest has allowed us to come back into this week's training with a different mindset.

"We're right in the mix so let's go and get two wins and see where that puts us.”

Though they have had some time away, the performance against Irish still clearly causes some anguish.

Saints really struggled against their play-off rivals, being starved of possession and territory for long periods in Brentford.

“London Irish played better than us and they thoroughly deserved the win,” Vesty said.

"The frustration from us is that we didn't put our game on the park.

"If you put your best foot forward, you don't mind what happens as a result but we weren't true to ourselves, didn't put our game on the pitch and were a bit hesistant. That can't happen again.

"What we pride ourselves on is being us and putting our game on the pitch and that was the frustration for us.”

While Saints were off last weekend and will be again this weekend, Saracens are at the opposite end of the workload spectrum.

They beat Ospreys last Sunday to set up a mouthwatering Champions Cup quarter-final at La Rochelle this Sunday.

And having already made sure of a home semi-final in the Premiership play-offs, they may opt to rotate against Saints after such attritional weeks in Europe.

But Vesty said: “What you do know is that you're going to get a really tough game against Sarries, whoever it is (they select). You know the nature of how they're going to play the game.

"Everything else is based on what we're going to do so we can focus on us, which we do anyway.

"It's important you don't change your game plan each week, that you get really good at doing what you do, and that's the key.

"Whoever turns up at Franklin's Gardens is going to be a very good team, and that's the important takeaway.”