Weekend off puts spring in the step as Radford looks forward to another Premiership Rugby Cup challenge

He and his fellow Saints coaches had a weekend without a game to manage, though director of rugby Phil Dowson was actually involved from a playing perspective.

Radford watched on as former Saints, Newcastle, Worcester and England back row forward Dowson strutted his stuff in the '745 Game', which was a battle between rugby league and union held at Headingley in aid of research into Motor Neurone Disease.

The '745 Game' was named as such in honour of the shirt numbers worn by Rob Burrow, former Gloucester player Ed Slater and Scotland great Doddie Weir.

Former Saints players Alex Waller and Tom Cruse also took to the field last Sunday, with the match ending in a 33-21 victory for the league side.

And Dowson certainly played his part, with Radford reporting that the Saints boss was on the field for 'about 60 minutes'.

"I managed to watch Phil Dowson playing in the League v Union game so that was the highlight of my weekend!" Radford said, smiling broadly.

"I'm just waiting for video footage of it so I can clip it because I think it's important the team see where he can improve on some of the stuff he was doing."

It was a rare weekend off for Saints, though many of their players were in international action.

"I had a fantastic weekend, did absolutely nothing, which was great!" Radford added.

"For blokes who were carrying knocks, the timing of that was perfect.

"But there are some players who would have liked to continue that momentum of playing week in, week out.

"The challenge this weekend and the run-up back to the Prem, I'm really looking forward to it."

This Saturday, Saints square up to unbeaten Championship side Coventry at Butts Park Arena (kick-off 3pm).

And Radford said: "It is a challenge. They're obviously flying in the Championship, full of confidence, and flying in the PRC as well, undefeated in this competition.

"It's a challenge I'm looking forward to.

"I felt like we lost the energy battle in the first half against Nottingham so hopefully that's a real good wake-up call for what's to come this week.

"We're expecting to face a team with that same intent and energy this weekend so it's really important we drive that and get hold of that, particularly early in the game.

"The level of opposition is probably exactly what we want to be facing."

He added: “The PRC in general is a really good concept.

"It's the opportunity to give some of our young guys a go and some of our players who haven't had as much game time as they'd want in the first six league games.

"I really liked this competition last year because it was the start of the campaign so you could have a really good look at the young blokes and see who you felt was Prem ready.

"This time round it's a similar opportunity to give guys minutes who need them and also the chance to have a look at them in a Saints shirt and make a decision on them going forward."

Saints have been without their international stars in recent weeks, but Radford has been pleased that training levels have remained high.

He said: "We've had 10 international players missing now for the best part of three weeks so that naturally has a knock-on effect in terms of your training levels.

"When you take that amount of quality out of any organisation there's going to be a dip so that's been a challenge for us: to make sure our intensity and quality of our training levels stay as high as they possibly can. It's something we've done really well."