Wood wants Saints to back up Gloucester win

But he now wants his team to back up the 22-19 Aviva Premiership success in the weeks to come.

Wood started in the back row as Saints ended a run of seven successive league defeats at the weekend.

And they will now head into the Champions Cup clashes with Clermont Auvergne and Saracens with renewed belief.

"I was a bit reluctant to do the lap of honour as though we'd won the league and some silverware, but we were so desperate, we just needed a win and to get it is a weight off everyone's

shoulders," Wood said of the weekend win against the Cherry and Whites.

"It's brilliant to be able to do it for the fans at home, for some of the senior guys and the coaches.

"It's nice to be able to front up to the press and say something positive for once.

"Hopefully we can reverse our fortunes from the first few months of the season.

"We need to back the win up and move forward with this now."

Saints' new coaching consultant Alan Gaffney started work at the Gardens last week and was able to have an instant impact.

Wood has been impressed with the Australian and believes his influence will become even more apparent in the weeks and months to come.

"He's taken a back seat a bit and just observed," the flanker explained.

"I guess he's doing a lot of work with the coaches and a lot of work with the backs individually.

"Forwards wise we haven't seen a lot of him yet.

"He's had a few blunt chats in meetings and he questioned a few things we were doing, which I'd rather not go into.

"We're going to see a lot more of him and his influence is starting to tell with the coaches more than the individual players."